It used to be this way, but this was far too powerful.  In 5v5's, if an enemy Vasari begin with allied players on his flanks he could just fast-tech to RA and this would effectively end the game since he could easily produce enough ships to match two or even three opponents on his own.

It's still awesome value considering the number of units you get, but it's just not a game-winning freebee anymore.  It's a little on the weak side now because you need to do so much setup to make it work, but once you have it you should be able to maintain 2400 command fleets on a mediocre late-game economy no problem.