Afterlife (episode 3 in Fek'Ihri Return KDF storyline) glitch?

When arriving in the Boreth system you are tasked with destroying 3 groups of Fek'Ihri ships. The group of frigates next to the planet are untargetable (though quite able to fire at you), so progress cannot be made beyond 2 groups of 3. Occasionally the frigates drop mines which are targetable but the ships are not, even when using Torpedo Spread, Scatter Volley or even dropping the Prior's World Elite Defense Satellite amidst the ships. I dropped and restarted the episode 5 times and tried various weapons as well as trying to get the frigates to follow, away from the planet, all unsuccessfully.
Skipping the episode does lets you continue and complete the storyline, but completing Afterlife doesn't seem possible at this time. It seems the Fek'Ihri ships spawn inside the atmosphere and never leave it to become targetable. I hope this is fixable, since I recall the episode as quite enjoyable when it works.