Artillery batteries without command, control and communications (C3) are worse than useless, they are a potential liability. To combat potential problems with answering requests for fire support from frontline units each CEF artillery battery has its own local C3 node for coordinating fire missions.
The HC-3 comes equipped with a satellite uplink for reporting field conditions to HQ and directing Ortillery strikes. A powerful electronic warfare suite ensures that a battery’s guns can send and receive communications while remaining relatively safe from enemy forward observers. A defensive laser cannon is mounted for self-protection, although HC-3 crews are strongly discouraged from taking offensive action. Time spent engaging an enemy with weaponry is time not spent on keeping the EM spectrum clear for friendlies and jammed for enemies.
Most often the HC-3 will freely range somewhere between the frontline fighters and its artillery battery so as to provide EW support forward. HC-3 crews can be made up of either troopers or soldiers, the latter most often being a Jan and Kassandra GREL team, and are often the most battlefield-experienced personnel in the entire battery.[1]
Usage
The HC-3 is a crucial link in the CEF’s ability to coordinate its forces during an engagement. Usually once an enemy has located a command car it will become a priority target for a hostile force.
On Terra Nova, Gear pilots were reportedly paid bounties for the destruction of command cars in the later stages of the campaign.[2]
References
↑Colonial Expeditionary Force - Modern Conquerors (2001) DP9-065 pg. 106
↑Colonial Expeditionary Force - Modern Conquerors (2001) DP9-065 pg. 106
