Assigning combat fire groups to combat mode and assigning other fire groups to exploration mode would dramatically reduce the amount of clutter you have to cycle through while switching weapons while in the middle of combat. Alternatively, you could just remove the warning to switch fire modes while stacking exploration mode fire groups on top of combat mode fire groups.
Here are other threads of folks complaining about this problem.
"Incorrect Cockpit Mode Press to Switch"
"Incorrect Cockpit Mode"
"Incorrect Cockpit Mode Message"
Here are other threads of folks complaining about this problem.
"Incorrect Cockpit Mode Press to Switch"
"Incorrect Cockpit Mode"
"Incorrect Cockpit Mode Message"