Crow

The Crow Scout VTOL is a military-grade, scout combat vehicle that is based upon the civilian Soar. Yan Manufacturing designed the Crow to replace the many scout BattleMechs the Draconis Combine lost during the Combine-Ghost Bear War. The Yan team kept many of the strengths of the search-and-rescue vehicle the Crow is descended from, though they improved it using military-grade technologies. Yan initially had trouble selling the Crow to the DCMS. Finally, Yan agreed to give the unit to them as long as the Combine supplied the electronics. In exchange, Yan is free to sell the unit to mercenary units.

The most obvious advantage of the Crow is its 216 km/h top speed. The incredibly fast vehicle can often get in and out of trouble spots before its enemies can effectively bring their weapons to bear. In order to fulfill its duties as a scout, the Crow carries a suite of advanced electronics, though the cost of those pushed the vehicle's price tag far above what Procurement officials expect out of a fifteen-ton VTOL. For scout duties, it has a Wunderland Beagle Active Probe, while a Forward-1 TAG allows the Crow to spot for indirect bombardments. An Apple-Churchill Guardian ECM Suite protects it from enemy spotting devices. The Crow's speed is its best armor. It mounts a meager one and a half tons of standard armor.

Weapons and Equipment
As a scout and spotter, the TAG is the Crow's strongest offense, though it requires coordinating with other units. The only weaponry the Crow mounts is a pair of Exostar ER Small Lasers in its front.

Variants

 * C3 : Due to shortage of TAGs, some Crows come equipped with a C3 Slave Unit instead . BV (2.0) = 288


 * Export : Targeted at the mercenary market, this variant transforms the Crow into a harasser. It removes the electronics and replaces them with armor and weapons. The added guns include two Machine Guns for anti-infantry work and Rocket Launchers. It retains the ER Small Lasers. BV (2.0) = 415


 * "Dragonfly" : The Dragonfly variant carries no weapons. It is equipped with a Beagle Probe, Guardian ECM suite, C3 Slave, and a TAG unit to designate targets. BV (2.0) = 186