Technical Readout: 3026

Intended as a background book for the BattleTech universe, Technical Readout: 3026 was second TRO to be released and the first to focus on the secondary weapon systems (combat vehicles) of the game. It also included personal equipment that could be used by players of MechWarrior, the roleplaying game.

It was first published in 1987 with a same cover second edition in 1996. The unit designs of TRO:3026 were reissued in 2003 as Technical Readout: 3026 Revised and eventually supplanted by (and merged into) the more comprehensive Technical Readout: 3039. The information on personal equipment was successively replaced with MechWarrior related sourcebooks.

The German edition was published as Hardware-Handbuch: 3031 with altered content (see Technical Readout: 3026 below).

Table of Contents

 * Vehicles
 * Ferret Light Scout VTOL
 * Savannah Master Hovercraft
 * Armored Personnel Carriers
 * Guardian Fighter
 * Skulker Wheeled Scout Tank
 * Warrior H-7 Attack Helicopter
 * Harasser Missile Platform
 * J. Edgar Light Hover Tank
 * Scorpion Light Tank
 * Sea Skimmer Hydrofoil
 * Karnov UR Transport
 * Hunter Light Support Tank
 * Pegasus Scout Hover Tank
 * Saladin Assault Hover Tank
 * Saracen Medium Hover Tank
 * Scimitar Medium Hover Tank
 * Striker Light Tank
 * Engineering Vehicle
 * Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun
 * Goblin Medium Tank
 * 'MechBuster Fighter
 * Condor Heavy Hover Tank
 * Drillson Heavy Hover Tank
 * Maxim Heavy Hover Tank
 * Planetlifter Air Transport
 * Vedette Medium Tank
 * Bulldog Medium Tank
 * Hi-Scout Drone Carrier
 * LRM/SRM Carrier
 * Manticore Heavy Tank
 * Pike Support Vehicle
 * Monitor Naval Vessel
 * Demolisher Heavy Tank
 * Partisan Heavy Tank
 * Schrek PPC Carrier
 * SturmFeur Heavy Tank
 * Ontos Heavy Tank
 * Behemoth Heavy Tank
 * Neptune Submarine


 * Personal Equipment
 * Electronic Suits
 * Rechargers
 * Remote Sensors
 * Exoskeletons
 * Communicators
 * Artificial Limbs
 * Miscellaneous Personal Equipment


 * Weapons
 * General Game Use
 * Support Weapons
 * Recoilless Rifles
 * Flamers
 * Mortars
 * Machine Guns
 * Photon Particle Guns (sic!)
 * Lasers
 * Personal Weapons
 * Needlers
 * Pistols
 * Pulse Lasers
 * Lasers
 * Sub-Machine Guns
 * Rifles
 * Gyrojets
 * Grenades
 * LAWs
 * Miscellaneous
 * Personal Weapons Table
 * Support Weapons Table

Remarks on content

 * The title comprises descriptions of 42 units in total, all vehicle designs and all previously unpublished. Furthermore it contains description and rule sets for a variety of personal equipment for using in MechWarrior. It contains:
 * 42 Vehicle designs,
 * 3 VTOL designs,
 * 3 Conventional Aircraft designs and
 * 3 Naval Vessels.
 * 40 Personal Equipment items, spread in 7 different sub-categories and
 * 46 Personal Weapon items spread in 2 sub-categories with 6 respective 10 sub-sub-categories.
 * The TRO has no in-universe presentation.

German Edition
Published by licensee FanPro, the German edition of Technical Readout 3026 (TRO 3026) received extensive revamping, beginning with the title, which was changed to Hardware-Handbuch 3031. According to the imprint, additional texts from other sources (Technical Readout: 3050, House Liao, Wolf's Dragoons, Sorenson's Sabres and Stardate) were included. The German version is printed as DIN A4, a standard European paper size, which is a little larger then north american Letter.

Graphics
The original's 16 colored unit graphics were rearranged as an unnumbered 4-page miniature gallery (4 images per page) at the middle of the book. The unit's images at the correspending data sheets were instead shown in black and white.

Table of Content
The original content was restructured and expanded. Where the original TRO 3026 lists only "Vehicles" (of any kind), "Personal Equipment" and (personal) "Weapons", Hardware-Handbuch 3031 details the sections further, resulting in this altered table of content:
 * Battlemechs (sic!)
 * Panzer (Tanks)
 * Artillerie (Artillery)
 * Senkrechtstarter und konventionelle Flugzeuge (Vertical Take-off and Landing and Conventional Aircrafts)
 * Wasserfahrzeuge (Watercraft)
 * Hilfsfahrzeuge (Support Vehicles)
 * Ausrüstung (Personal Equipment)
 * Waffen (Weapons)
 * Schautafeln (Visual Aid, a "new" section that comprehends equipment sketches)
 * Index

Additional content from other sources
Expanded content includes various designs from other sources, complete with Technical Readout-style fluff, combat histories, and notable pilots. In detail these are:
 * The new section Battlemechs that includes five additional BattleMech designs
 * Flea - The 20-ton FLE-15 version. Combat history and Notable Pilots (Kare Devereux and Thheiba Shakir) were translated from an (apocryphal) writeup in Stardate Vol. 3 No. 1.
 * Raven - The standard Raven as statted in the House Liao (The Capellan Confederation) sourcebook. Like in that book, the ECM Equipment (for which no rules existed) was supposedly mounted in the Center Torso location despite occupying four critical slots. The Combat History writeup and single Notable Pilot (Kevin DeNato from the 1st McCarron's Armored Cavalry regiment) given were original and have not been translated or re-published elsewhere.
 * Wolfhound - Combat History is a retelling of the 'Mech's history as described in the Warrior trilogy, with Daniel Allard given as the sole entry under Notable Pilots.
 * Cataphract - Also taken from the House Liao (The Capellan Confederation) sourcebook, with an original writeup that was not translated or published anywhere else. Combat History centers on the exploits of Notable Pilot Kalidas Aniro of Warrior House Kamata in the fighting against Andurien forces under Jimmy Lee on Betelgeuse.
 * Longbow - Combat history and Notable Pilots (Beater/Hunter team Oshira Muzakka and Jon Smallberry, and Cedrick Sveinson) were translated from an (apocryphal) writeup in Stardate Vol. 3 No. 2.
 * The Panzer section includes 23 vehicle designs, from which 20 were taken from TRO 3026, the additional designs are:
 * Plainsman - taken from Wolf's Dragoons'' source book
 * Bandit - taken from Wolf's Dragoons source book
 * Zhukov - taken from Wolf's Dragoons source book
 * The Artillerie section includes 5 vehicle designs (Harasser, Hetzer, LRM/SRM Carrier, Pike and Schrek), which are all included in TRO 3026, although none of them is technically considered as artillery under BattleTech Rules.
 * The Senkrechtstarter und Konventionelle Flugzeuge section lists 8 vehicle designs, from which 6 were taken from TRO 3026, the additional designs are:
 * Kestrel - taken from Wolf's Dragoons'' source book
 * Peregrine - also taken from Wolf's Dragoons'' source book
 * The Wasserfahrzeuge section lists 3 designs, which are all taken from TRO 3026.
 * The Hilfsfahrzeuge section lists 6 vehicle designs, from which 5 were taken from TRO 3026, the additional design is:
 * Badger - taken from Wolf's Dragoons source book

Altered and missing content
The Ausrüstung and Waffen sections were rearranged as well, with some original content being left out. The stats provided for equipment were slightly altered, presumably to account for rule changes since the publication of TRO 3026.
 * The Ausrüstung section lists just 4 categories of equipment (Communicators, Sensors, Exoskeletons and Artificial Limbs), the following categories included in TRO 3026 were left out:
 * Electronic Suits
 * Rechargers
 * Miscellaneous Personal Equipment
 * The Waffen section restructures the original content in 3 new categories (Rückstoßfreie Gewehre und Flammer (Recoilless Rifles and Flamers), Mörser und Maschinengewehre (Mortars and Machine Guns) and Partikelprojektorkanonen und Laser (Particle Projector Cannons and Lasers), which describes combined just 9 weapon systems. The vast majority of weapons described in TRO 3026 was left out.
 * All original sketches of equipment that were not included in sections Ausrüstung or Waffen were compiled in new section Schautafeln, although no stats or any information other than its name were given.

All additional content technically falls outside of the current definition of canon and must thus be considered apocryphal.

Spelling and Names
As with other German products prior to 1997 spelling and names (especially places and units) as well as most abbreviations were regularly adjusted. For instance the Mech unit Archer was renamed to Schütze, the Planet Gotterdammerung was respelled to Götterdämmerung, the DCMS (Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery) became VSDK (Vereinigte Streitkräfte des Draconis Kombinats) and so on.