Pelican

The Pelican dropship is a large UNSC vehicle that appears in the Halo series. Pelicans have a large carrying capacity, and can handle a Warthog, Scorpion, weapon drop pods, or several Mongooses. The Pelican is more of a support vehicle than an attack vehicle. However, despite this, the Pelican generally has a sufficient amount of firepower. Depending on the current objective a Pelican can be outfitted with different weaponry. Generally, it packs a mounted machine gun in the cargo hold, and two front mounted missile launchers. Pelicans are operated by the following groups:
 

• UNSC Marine Corps.
• UNSC Navy
• New Mombasa Police

 

Models

The Pelican is available in different variants that can be seen depending on the Halo game being played. Below are the three variants that are found across the entire series, along with their code. All the model variants are extremely similar, however.
 

Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2

Model:  D77-TC
 
The original model of Pelican, the TC (Troop Carrier), appears in the early Halo games. It is almost identical to the TCi model which appears in Halo 3.

Halo 3

Model: D77H-TCi
 

The TCI edition of the Pelican is a more modernized version of the vehicle, designed to replace the more aged models seen in Halo: CE and Halo 3. These models of Pelican are equipped with the same armaments as previous models, and in fact it is unclear whether there is any difference at all between them.
 

Halo 3: ODST

Model: D77C-NMPD (New Mombasa Police Department)
 
The police variant of the Pelican is almost identical to the military version. However, the livery on the vehicle is altered to fit in-line with the different intended use. The police Pelican was used for surveillance of traffic, search missions, recon, and as prison transport. 
 

Trivia

• At no point in the Halo franchise are players able to fly a Pelican outside of glitches or exploits. Even in Halo Wars, Pelicans are only used with the Troop Transport leader power and not as a player-controlled unit.
  
• One of Bungie's lead designers stated that the cargo bay on the Pelican is large enough to fit an M1A1 Abrams tank into.