If you could please take a look at the ax Taipan, NPCs controlling it will not fire. I believe the problem is, a while back they added code to prevent NPCs from firing human weapons uselessly at thargoids, and unfortunately the ax taipans weapons were included.
Unfortunately, it is also the only fighter that doesn't blow up in short order inside the Maelstrom, and given the large preponderance of Scouts in the area, it would be really nice to have it as an option.
The reason I do not report this on the issue tracker is because it is impossible to get enough people reporting the same thing at the same time to get an issue confirmed unless it is literally game breaking.
I will also post this on Facebook and twitter, so hopefully it gets through somewhere.