If you have Praetorian's focus on upgrading them fully to U3 as well as your riots

Could you be more specific? I started the game and have no clue how to get my ships upgraded or how to build "expert hulls". I have multiple hulls and weapons I want to build but I keep on being told I cannot build expert on the selected hull. No explanation either. Btw I am a little disappointed in this thread - I thought this was supposed to be a tutorial and not just some ramblings such as myself.