Combat Armor

Combat Armor
Type	Personal Armor
Tech Level	TL–11
Cost	Cr20,000
Size	12 liters
Weight	60kg

Combat Armor, similar in construction to battle dress, is a complete vacc-suit-like array of metal and synthetic armor. It may be pressurized for use in vacuum or conditions of extremely low air pressure. The addition of a PLSS Type C allows for 40 hours of survival in these conditions. The suit contains integral communications equipment, usually a short ranged radio for communication with others in the same unit.

Combat Armor is strictly military and not available on the open market; it is issued to troop units and elite mercenary battalions. Before combat armor can be worn, the user must have training with vacc suits or similar personal armor types. But due to a thriving black-market for military supplies, the armor can be purchased on some high tech level worlds. These suits are used for Protected Forces.

At TL–12 a chameleon surface becomes available for the combat armor at an additional cost of Cr1,000. It selectively bleeds heat to match background IR levels and effectively renders the wearer invisible to IR sensors. The IR camouflage is a simple, solid-state cooling system that is woven into the garment and that eliminates all infrared signature except on the exposed heat exhaust. The heat exhaust is a very pronounced IR source, but this can be dampened by inserting a chill can into the cooling system. The chill system eliminates the signature for 45 minutes to two hours; at the end of that time the can is used up and must be replaced.

Beginning at TL–12, psionic shielding is available as an option for any armor at an additional cost of Cr4,000. Psionic shielding protects the wearer from psionic mind reading and from psionic life sensing.

Combat armor is not powered and thus troops so equipped may not fire high energy weapons designed exclusively for use with battle dress such as the PGMP-13 and FGMP-14.

---

Combat Armor is one of the common forms of hazardous-duty dress commonly used by the military and paramilitaries of most polities. The most common forms of battlefield protective dress incllude:

• Battle Dress (Braced Battle Armor)
• Power/Battle Armor (Powered/Augmented (non-braced) Combat Armor/Suit)
• Combat Armor (Non-augmented Combat Suit)

• Combat Suit (AKA Armored Vacc Suit/Boarding Suit or Boarding Armor)
• Hostile Environment Vacc Suit
• Combat Environment Suit (AKA Armored Hostile Environment Suit)
• Hostile Environment Suit (Hazardous Environment Non-Combat Armor)

---

Terminology: Modern Imperial Armorers use the following terms to officially designate certain characteristics of armor design. Note that this does not mean that the common terms used among militaries to refer to specific types of armor always rigorously follow this particular terminology or nomenclature, and confusion sometimes arises when terms unofficially overlap in colloquial or common usage. Combat Armor can be acquired in variants based upon the terminology noted below.

• Powered/Augmented: Rigid-plate battlefield protective gear that has been designed with powered active feedback to joints and muscles that utilize the power of the suit to supplement or enhance the wearer's physical abilities.
• Braced: Powered/Augmented Armor that has been designed to receive and distribute the force from a high-recoil weapon system without damage to either the armored suit or its wearer (i.e. internally structured to withstand extremes of force, primarily recoil).

• Suit: A term referring to battlefield protective gear that is unpowered (and therefore both unaugmented and unbraced).
• "Armored": A term referring to a battlefield protective Suit that has been reinforced with additional rigid plating and defenses. (Sometimes listed as "Armor", but the usage is technically incorrect, as it is still unpowered).
• Armor: A term referring to powered (and generally augmented), but unbraced battlefield protective gear (i.e. "Power Armor").
• Dress: A term referring to powered and augmented battlefield protective gear that is also fully braced. The term "Dress" is derived from the archaic term for the standard combat uniform worn by soldiers, also called "Battle Dress". The "Dress" element of the term evolved over the millennia to become the term for the ultimate in state-of-the-art military armor.

• Boarding: The system is designed for zero-G operations against interplanetary and interstellar vessels and potential vacuum conditions.
• Assault: Protective gear designed with only short-term engagement in mind (i.e. hours). Relatively lightweight system intended for short-term operations against an enemy force.
• Combat: Mid-term endurance battlefield protective gear designed for battlefield operations of a few days against an enemy force.
• Battle: Long-term endurance battlefield protective gear designed for protracted battlefield conditions, incorporating protections against most dangers, attacks, and threats on the battlefield.

---

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Mongoose Publishing or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Marc Miller. Characters and Combat (Game Designers Workshop, 1977), 42-43.
• Frank Chadwick. Mercenary (Game Designers Workshop, 1978), 41, 52.
• Marc Miller. Shadows/Annic Nova (Game Designers Workshop, 1980), 20.
• J. Andrew Keith, Marc Miller, John Harshman. Zhodani (Game Designers Workshop, 1985), 15-17.
• Marc Miller. Imperial Encyclopedia (Game Designers Workshop, 1987), 74.
• Marc Miller. "Imperial Soldier’s Weapons & Armor Guide." MegaTraveller 1: The Zhodani Conspiracy (1990): 134.
• Loren Wiseman. GURPS Traveller Core Rules (Steve Jackson Games, 1998), 118.
• Martin Dougherty, Neil Frier. Star Mercs (Steve Jackson Games, 1999), .
• Douglas E. Berry. Ground Forces (Steve Jackson Games, 2000), 87.
• Marc Miller. T5 Core Rules (Far Future Enterprises, 2013), 629.
• Matthew Sprange. Core Rule Book (Mongoose Publishing, 2016), 98.
• Matthew Sprange. Central Supply Catalogue (Mongoose Publishing, 2016), 11.
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science