At this point you can attempt to salvage the design of any ship that has been destroyed on this turn in the same sector as one of your ships.  You will salvage a destroyed ship's design automatically if all of the following conditions are true in the same sector:

• The destroyed ship was not explicitly self-destructed.  You can salvage designs for ships destroyed by enemy fire, collateral damage, or an ion storm, or was destroyed when its cargo/carrier was destroyed.
• The destroyed ship was not a deployed device or a fired missile.
• The destroyed ship has just been destroyed on the same turn as the salvage attempt.
• The salvaging empire possesses a conquering ship in the same sector as the destroyed foreign ship.
• The salvaging empire possesses conquering guns in the same sector as the destroyed ship that total strictly more than three times the total remaining DP of all conquering ships in the same sector that belong to the same empire as the destroyed ship.  That is, a sufficient foreign force will prevent you from salvaging designs belonging to that empire.
• The salvaging empire possesses the most conquering guns of all empires present in the sector containing the destroyed ship.

 
 
Each destroyed ship is evaluated using these rules, and if they are all true, then the destroyed ship's design is added to the salvaging empire's list of known ship classes for their future use; otherwise no salvage can take place for that particular ship.  Only one empire may be the salvaging empire in a given sector, although it need not be the empire that destroyed the salvaged ship; in the case of a tie, no salvage takes place in that sector.  If the salvaging empire already owns the salvaged design, then no other empire receives that design on that salvage attempt.  Note that any cargo loaded on a destroyed ship is also fair game for salvage (again, unless it was explicitly self-destructed).

Allies: Allies always cooperate in salvage operations.  Allied empires combine their guns as a single friendly unit for purposes of determining salvage rights of foreign ships, and combine their remaining DP to prevent any foreign empire from salvaging an allied ship design.  If a group of allied empires salvages a design, then all empires in the alliance receive the design (even if they were not present in the salvaging sector).