Dropship

A dropship is an atmospheric and/or exoatmospheric transport aircraft/spaceplane of small proportions chiefly designed to service a ship, generally by transporting people and/or supplies to and from surfaces or another ship. They sometimes referred to as an assault boat, battle taxi, shuttlecraft, tender, or troop carrier; depending on the application of their intended type and role. Some dropships are designed to carry specific types of cargo, such as supplies or prefabricated structures. On capital ships, dropships do double duty, serving as tenders in day-to-day activities, but fully equipped to act as evacuation crafts in an emergency.

A military dropship's primary technical definition is a logistical support/deployment platform that can deliver (or extract) troops, military assets, and hardware from space platforms to the surface of a planet or ship (and vice versa) for invasion/boarding operations. These dropships also serve as gunships and utility craft, providing ground operations with close air support in addition to ferrying infantry and matériel between combat zones within atmospheric and/or terrestrial environments.

Known dropship types

In the Covenant

The Covenant's ubiquitous "Phantom" troop carrier.

UNSC designation:

• Phantom dropships - The primary series of Covenant dropship.
  • Type-44 "Phantom" Troop Carrier - A dropship supplanted by a newer model, the Type-52, which was ubiquitous later in the Human-Covenant War. The Covenant remnant use the Type-44 as their primary dropship, likely due to the scarcity of the newer model.
  • Type-52 "Phantom" Troop Carrier - A more heavily armed version of the Type-44 typically used to transport personnel, though also used to transport matériel.
    • Type-52 "Phantom" Gunboat - Exoatmospheric combat craft and a variant of the Type-52 Troop Carrier. It is used for space-based engagements
• Type-25 "Spirit" Troop Carrier - A dropship commonly used to transport matériel, though also used to transport personnel.
• Type-56 "Lich" Ground Support/Ultra Heavy Deployment Platform - The largest airborne deployment platform, the Type-56 boasts heavy armament and is capable of mass deployments of up to forty soldiers.

In the UNSC

The UNSC's ubiquitous Pelican dropship.

• Pelican dropships - The primary series of UNSC dropship.
  • D77-TC Pelican - The standard Pelican dropship.
    • D77H-TCI Pelican - A more recent, upgraded model of the Pelican.
    • D77C-NMPD Pelican - A law enforcement variant of the Pelican.
      • Troop deployment pod - Overhang extension to increase passenger load capacity.
  • D79-TC Pelican - Became the UNSC's standard dropship by 2557; replacing the D77-TC and D77H-TCI models.
• D82-EST Darter - A dropship, similar to the Albatross, used to deliver supplies directly to forward bases.
• D96-TCE Albatross - A larger, less common dropship used to transport large quantities of matériel and large groups of personnel.
• Pod - A very large, heavy dropship used for transporting prefabricated structures to groundside locations.

Atmospheric only

• UH-144 Falcon - The primary air-to-ground support and troop transport aircraft of the UNSC Army.