Ship .cmp files are in the same format as weapon .cmp files and very simlar to .3db files which define objects such as cargo pods aswell as ship components (although ship components dont seem to need .3db files at all and function well enough with the component data from the ships .cmp file).

However both .3db files and weapon .cmp files contain nodes for Material Library and Texture Library as a ships .mat file has.

I have tested ships with these nodes included in the .cmp file and the good news is that they work fine without any .mat file.

This means instead of making a separate .mat file for your ship you can include its texture in the .cmp, adding nodes as if it were a .mat file. Its not gonna save a huge amount of work but it will hopefully make ship design a wee bit less complicated.

The only issue i have found so far is that the texture must be in .dds format not .tga format for the ship to display correctly. This means the nodes off Material Library must have the name MIPS instead of MIP0 to define them as .dds'es. You dont need to flip .dds file before putting them in a .cmp/.mat so leave them the way you have them in Milkshape.