Looks like a bug:

Advanced ballistics needs only lvl 3 basic ballistics

Advanced magnetostatics,
Advanced optics, and
Advanced kinematics all list lvl5 of their basic versions as prerequisite

is that unfair imbalance intended?

it used to be lvl3 for all of them, as i can remember that Gremrod requested removing the lvl5 prerequiste from chemo-active ammos, so noone has to level this extension up when he switches to mech after three days anyway
. Its still a riddle for me why that wish was granted, but that aside, with the numbers above it makes even less sense