[DamienHollow]

Okay, I can't believe this hasn't come up before but the issue was recently raised. Having a drone/drone rack just sitting on your vehicle can look awfully suspicious. Is  there any way to either hide the rack, or disassemble and store the drone inside through the use of mechanical arms?

[mtfeeney = Baron]

You could have the drone rack inside the vehicle instead of on the roof...

[Dragonslayer]

Or have concealed compartments.

[Mantis]

Where does it say drone racks are mounted on the outside of the vehicle in some obvious way? They aren't the drone equivalent of a ski rack. The system needs power at the least and since it takes up mod slots it is integrated into the vehicle in some fashion. Look at the GMC Hermes van. It comes with drone racks but I don't imagine they are some sort of clunky obvious thing stapled to the outside of the vehicle. There are other vehicles that also feature drone racks built in. Any flying vehicle is going to have those racks mounted as aerodynamically as possible to cut down on drag and the same could be said for ground vehicles.
I picture these systems more as a door/hatch opens in the vehicle and the drone disembarks rather than it gets to fly or drive off some sort of rack on the roof or something.

[farothel]

There are courier companies that use drones to deliver things (I read that somewhere, although I don't recall where exactly).  Drive through a neighbourhood, drop the drones, they deliver packages and get new packages and than are picked up again.  Much faster than stopping at every address.  Make sure your van looks like one of those and nobody would look twice at you (make sure the drones aren't too obviously armed though).

[DamienHollow]

Where does it say drone racks are mounted on the outside of the vehicle in some obvious way? They aren't the drone equivalent of a ski rack. The system needs power at the least and since it takes up mod slots it is integrated into the vehicle in some fashion. Look at the GMC Hermes van. It comes with drone racks but I don't imagine they are some sort of clunky obvious thing stapled to the outside of the vehicle. There are other vehicles that also feature drone racks built in. Any flying vehicle is going to have those racks mounted as aerodynamically as possible to cut down on drag and the same could be said for ground vehicles.
I picture these systems more as a door/hatch opens in the vehicle and the drone disembarks rather than it gets to fly or drive off some sort of rack on the roof or something.

For Small racks I would agree, But what about large? Seeing as how they don;t have true size categories rather loos interpretations some of those flying drones could be huge.

[Kiirnodel]

I made a character with a GMC Hermes van (the drone delivery truck) where I added another Large drone rack as well. The way I describe it is like a van with the automated doors and trunk. The two side doors open up and give access to the small drone racks (I imagine them as sliding forward into place to release/capture drones), and the trunk opens up for the large drone rack. From the outside, the truck looks pretty normal, but the doors and stuff open up to give access to the drone racks.

[Mantis]

For the flying drones, I just assume the wings fold up for storage. When you deploy from the drone rack the wings fold back out again. With mimetic metals and smart plastics that shouldn't be too hard a thing to do. If this wasn't the case you would still have a problem with the big flying drones on an external rack as they would be hitting stuff as the vehicle cruises along.
In 3rd ed they had this thing called CF for Cargo Factor that made this sort of thing easier to figure out but they have elected to go with simplicity in 4th for such things. So now we get Predator drones we can jam inside a step van. It's progress man. It's amazing. New from GMC. Buy one today!

[DamienHollow]

Ah, I figured that sort of thing would be filed under the assembly time improvement.

[Mantis]

It could be, if there was a single vehicle outside the Dawnglider,  in the entire game that listed any sort of assembly time. Otherwise it ends up just being a mod you can add to break things down for smuggling or concealment purposes, similar to the easy breakdown mod for weapons.

[ShockWave]

I agree. The drones should be able to be stored inside of the vehicle. Take a look at the picture of the BAE Centurion in Mil Spec Tech.

It clearly shows a row of three Small Drone Racks to store the drones internally behind flush panels. The picture also shows a Large Landing Drone Rack on the back of the tank.

[DamienHollow]

yes but the rear drone "rack" looks more like a flat landing pad. Considering that Global Hawk is considered large, we don;t really know how big drones are. I doubt you could fit one of those in a semi trailer.

[Mantis]

I could have sworn there was some rough description on the relative sizes of drones somewhere but I can't remember where now. From what I recall, the large drones aren't any bigger than a motorcycle and the others scale down from there. Of course that was a rule of thumb and things like a predator obviously exceed that. Take them on a case by case basis I suppose. Honestly, I think some of those drones should have a higher body than what is listed.

[ShockWave]

Drone Sizes can be found on page 102 of Arsenal, but they are described as size ranges and ultimately left up to the gamemaster to decide. Large drones range in size from motorcycle to small car.

[Mantis]

There we go. Thanks. But even motorcycles and small cars have a higher body than the large drone does. Anyway, I guess I just figure these drones, since they don't actually need space for passengers or their safety systems, can compact themselves for storage. This is the only way even the concept of a drone rack makes sense for medium and large drones. Like many things in this game, the whole drone concept is simplified to make game play easier and you shouldn't think about the actual logistics of it all too much.