CTC Pelican Drone Terra-carrier
The CTC Pelican is a first of it's kind drone transportation, maintenance, and launch vehicle. It is a wheeled 6x6 armored vehicle that was designed from the ground up with its intended purpose it mind. From the outside it looks similar to an APC or a self propelled mortar. It was researched and designed on a contract for the Army of Burgundie from 2012-2023 and went into production in 2025, and was adopted by the [[Army of Burgundie in 2027. It currently serves at the brigade level as an independent platoon-level asset, a platoon being three Pelicans, their crew, and supply elements.
It has a four person crew: a driver, a communications/network officer (C/NO). a mechanic, and an assistant mechanic/ordnance technician (AM/OT]
Operational use
The top of the vehicle opens in the same way that a self-propelled mortar does so drones can be launched from with the vehicle under fire, however the typical MO is to park the vehicle out of harms way and fly numerous drones from outside of the vehicle. The Pelican Drone Terra-carrier is unique in that it does not typically operate the drones it carries itself. The carrier is designed for teams that operate with the same relationship to forward combat units as does artillery support. The Pelican moves into the area of operations, the crew dismounts and the communications/network officer works with the requesting unit(s) to determine drone type, capability/payload needed. Once the mission parameters are set the C/NO relays the requirements to the AM/OT to fit the recommend drone platform with the requisite instruments/payload. The mechanic them launches the drone and the C/NO patches control to the requesting unit's drone operators. This allows a Pelican crew to bring 6, large body drones into an AO and dispatch them almost simultaneously to a variety of units regardless of command structure.
==