Starship collision damage

Traveller:TNE does carry information on colliosions between
starships/aircraft. It is located on pages 301-302 in the Planetary Combat
section. The collision damage is equal to the tonnage times the net speed. A
random roll is used to determine hit location. The damage value is used as a
penetration value versus the hit location's armor value, the result being
used on the vehicle damage resoulution table.

So A Rampart fighter travelling at 42kps and hitting a stationary cruiser
will have a penetration factor of 38,503,500. 42 kps = 210 km per 5 second
combat turn and the mass of a Rampart being 183.35 tons unloaded. At any
rate, 38 million points of damage should wipe out almost any ship.

Also looking if FF&S. Couldn't we also consider the colliding ship to be the
projectile of a Mass Driver?  This approach might have some merits as it will
give the ship a penetration value of it's energy in Mj times 4 (PV=Mj x 4)
646,858,800 = 161,714,700Mj x 4. About 17 times more damage that the
collision procedure given in the rulebook. So I guess that the rulebook take
into account the loss of energy through structural collapse.

Sorry if I beat this topic to death :-}

John Bucsek    [email removed]