I've never heard of ATGMs being used on aircraft, except helicopters near the ground. I wouldn't be all that sure that a TL6 ATGM could even hit a spacecraft flying at a significant level above the ground, but presuming it can - 

Traveller spacecraft need undamaged engines and powerplants to fly. The hit would have to be in the right place, it'd have to punch through the armor, it would need sufficient explosive power to cause a high internal overpressure to damage personnel inside, and it would have to be large enough to hurt the engine or powerplant. Since Traveller spacecraft don't need lifting surfaces to fly, they won't be harmed just from that. 

You see tank armor protection levels being quoted in equivalent thickness of steel armor, which I translate in my head as "the x cm thick TL8 armor on the abrams is equivalent to 60 cm thick TL6 steel armor" - where "x" is nowhere near 60. I presume that TL13 hull armor is even more technically advanced. 

We don't model those sorts of things in our games, as ship to ship hits never happen, but if they did happen the armor is "officially" just steel or depleted uranium or carbon fiber or titanium and aluminum and an ATGM would actually probably punch through the thin part of the skin, but I suspect most Traveller rules would have the more advanced armor defeating TL6 ATGMs. 

Just a gut feeling anyway. 




-------- Original Message --------
On February 5, 2018 3:18 PM, James Catchpole (via tml list) <xxxxxx@simplelists.com> wrote:

Real world SAMs are made like that because that's all that is needed. Anti-tank missiles, on the other hand, are designed to punch through armour. Of course, aircraft move a lot faster than tanks, so a proximity detonation is a much more viable strategy when trying to target an aircraft...

The point I'm trying to make is that a free trader may be much more heavily armoured than a TL6 aircraft, but it's also going to be much bigger and probably more predictable in its flight path. Hence, if you are a TL6 military and you know that you may need to tackle something like that, you may well have a few SAMs designed to punch holes in heavily armoured targets. 

And if it's line of sight, a wire guided system would work out to a km or two...