Real talk. No one builds better military equipment these days than House Liao. The Capellan military turned it up to eleven after the Jihad- not only squirreling away enormous amounts of equipment for the proverbial rainy day, but building GOOD stuff in addition. Units like the Pixiu, the Tian-Zong, the Shun, just to name a few, have been excellent units, and it puts a big flashing exclamation point on Daoshen's failure to take New Avalon- how did you screw this up with an army like THIS?
But it turns out that Liao hasn't just recently been building good stuff. A look back at the dark days of the Succession Wars shows a lot of desperate Vindicator production (always a classic, if a little simple), and a few oddballs here and there like the Cataphract, their versions of classic machines like the Warhammer and Marauder, and... they didn't get a lot else, not the way we got signature Mechs like Steiner's Zeus or Kurita's Jenner. An odd little customer though began to show up in the fateful days before the 4th Succession War, and while it was a revelation only in that it was a new Mech design in an era that didn't have much of that, it eventually grew to become a respectable and useful machine in its own right- Hellespont's distinctive and wily Raven.
As mentioned above, this was a new Mech- not something built in a factory since the fall of the Star League and kept in production because no one knew how to retool the factory or design something else, it was the first actual new Mech to come out of Capellan designers in two centuries (excepting the odd cobbled-together nature of the Cataphract, of course). Designers used a sleek, bird-head look on back-canted legs, a very striking look that is instantly recognizable even to new Battletech players. Beyond those looks, we have a 35-ton Mech that plays a role we didn't see much of prior to the prototypes- an electronic warfare machine. While that's nothing unusual in the real world- aircraft dedicated to that role have been part of military forces for decades, such as the Nimrod, EA-6 Prowler, and EF-111... ah, Raven (coincidence, I'm sure, though they do have the same nose...). But Battletech doesn't have a lot of that- there weren't really electronic gizmos and treats to use in the role, prior to some of that debuting as lostech in TRO:2750. The Raven, then, was an attempt to revive dead technologies and put them on two feet.
We'll start with those early prototypes before we move on to the standard model we know and fear today. This was the
RVN-1X, and we immediately see limitations born of the technology of the day. The 175-rated engine gives the Raven a speed of 5/8, with no jump jets, and that's not going to win awards- it paces most mediums, but other light Mechs leave it in the dust, even in this era- a determined Wasp can keep on a Raven all day long. A four-ton shell of armor gives it reasonable protection for its size, but nothing to write home about. If your Raven is taking fire, your day has gone VERY poorly, so that thin shell shouldn't be getting tested much. An pair of medium lasers in the right arm provide reasonable defense power, backed by an always-handy SRM-6 for extra 'go away' muscle. But the real star of the show is the X-1 Electronic Warfare Equipment. Ceres, unable to recreate the old Beagle and Guardian systems, made this monstrosity instead, a seven ton collection of wires that gives the Raven its reason to exist. At its core, the X-1 provides ECM and active probe capabilities at the same time, but has less range than the old SLDF systems- and, again, weighs over seven tons. The idea is neat, but the range issues and tech limitations make this a pretty 'eh' Mech. Not produced in huge numbers, and with capabilities in-game that don't really reflect how useful something like this ought to be, it's probably a Mech best skipped for Liao force builds, and kept around as a scenario objective and such instead.
While we don't have a good figure of how many 1X Ravens were built, we know that at least some of that number ended up in the hands of the hated Davions following their blitzkrieg attack to start the 4th Succession War. These Ravens were 'upgraded' to the
RVN-2X standard, in which the X-1 and its mass were hauled out of the machine (likely taken to the NAIS for careful study!). The remaining Mech then got two and a half tons of armor grafted on, along with a large laser. With only twelve heat sinks, this is kind of not ideal- it's a bracket Mech in which the brackets are kind of blurred, so it takes some patience and a steady 'do not push the alpha button' mentality to really get a lot out of a 2X. I wouldn't recommend one in-general, but if you really want to tweak a Capellan opponent's nose, this will probably do the job.
A brief sidestep from the 1X again produces
RVN-3X, another 'I have an idea' machine that... wasn't really. The only real change on the 3X is the addition of triple-strength myomer, which is... well, not great. This isn't the heavy-duty stuff used later on Mechs like the Ti Tsang and No-Dachi to great effect- this is the 'catalyst gas causes your Mech to turn into a tiki torch' stuff. But, on the bright side, it... ah, can't heat up all that well to utilize the myomer, and this version of the technology doesn't give a speed boost- the thing you really want from TSM in a light Mech- anyway. So... I mean, I'm not saying don't ever use a 3X, just... why would you? It's a technological dead-end, really.
RVN-4X, meanwhile, is another odd situation in which Liao engineers accepted that the X-1 system was... less than it needed to be, and it got pulled for a pair of machine guns (and a ton of ammo) for some good old-fashioned crowd control fun, then spiked the rest of the machine with five jump jets. Obviously this entirely changes the role of the Mech, removing the limited electronic warfare capabilities in favor of becoming a terrain-ignoring close-fighter and infantry support unit. It's honestly a lot of fun in that role, maybe the best of the early-day Ravens- reinforcing that X-1 was garbage overall- and it deserves some playtime... however, by removing the reason the Raven was designed to begin with, it's yet another technological dead end- one that would, though, be revived many years later.

However, the rediscovery of lostech on Helm eventually made its way to the Capellans, and the Raven jumped feet-first into upgrades across the board... and a curious thing happened. Perhaps no Mech in TRO:3050 benefitted more from the new tech than the
RVN-3L Raven (which today we recognize as the 'base' model). Most units got improvements here and there, most had a hideous flaw added somewhere to offset it, a few were just flat better with no warts (Clint, Wolfhound), and others were absolutely trashed (Goliath, Grasshopper). But the Raven? Wow. First off, we dropped the X-1 system the Mech was designed around- that frees up a LOT of weight. We speed up a notch to 6/9, for starters. A switch to an XL engine makes for a more fragile machine, but it was never intended for line combat, so that's not the worst thing in the world. Ferro-fibrous armor- and an extra half-ton of it to boot- makes for a bit tougher of a Mech to bring down, somewhat offsetting the XL issue. Both the lasers and missiles remain untouched, because there's not much to be done to improve them (luckily, the 'add Artemis to everything!' trend in that book skipped the Raven). And of course, the meat of the whole thing- the electronic suite is both lighter, AND more capable, thanks to the revival of the Beagle and Guardian systems. If I missed something obscure, let me know, but to the best of my research this was the first unit to combine the two systems (certainly real-world, if not in-universe). A smartly-used Raven can ferret out hidden forces and ruin an ambush, ruin enemy sensors, break up C3 networks (when that tech came along later), and just generally make a nuisance of itself. But it's not over. All that freed up weight? Narc beacon. Ohhhh yeah. Using a sneaky Raven to slap a beacon on a target, then opening up with LRM batteries supporting (the classic old 3026 LRM carrier works great here) is mean as hell, and the Raven is a great platform for the job. Dash in, slap a beacon on the target (maybe with a few laser blasts to reinforce your dislike of them), and run back behind cover (with a handy ECM bubble) while the barrage flies in. Finally, and crucially for Liao forces in particular, a TAG laser helps call in artillery shots, giving the Mech even more capability. CCAF forces lean on Arrow systems more than most militaries- at this point they were already developing the Catapult into a carrier for it, and more launchers were finding their way into the field by the day, so having spotters was vital. The Raven took a while to find its niche, but with the 3L there's very few flaws to find- for its day, this is as good as one can make for an electronic warfare menace.
...maybe TOO good? Let's pause for a moment to look at the battlefield real quick from an enemy side of things. The old 1X was... let's be honest, not great. It's not fast, it's not got much armor, the electronic equipment is more of a 'you tried' than anything... you can ignore it and be okay. But the 3L? Kill it with fire. With all the improved gizmos, the Narc, the TAG... this is a devastating Mech if it's allowed to run wild, particularly with LRM or Arrow support behind it- and that means an intelligent (or even just shoe-tying intellect) FedCom commander is going to move heaven and earth to make the little bastard go away before it causes more chaos than it already has. That modest armor shouldn't get tested much, ideally- but it WILL if the enemy gets the right idea and pushes to get rid of it. It's not much of a fighter- it needs serious support if things go pear-shaped for your CCAF force. Be ready with a good bodyguard- attach the Narc pod to a target and get out of danger, running back to your buddies. A classic old Demolisher is a reasonable way to go here- no one wants to go anywhere near that thing, after all, so while the Raven has to die... just how much do I want to push at killing it if it means running headlong into THAT guard dog?
A version that the author finds baffling comes along shortly afterwards in the wake of the end of the Clan invasion. Stripping almost everything from the 3L other than the Narc launcher, we get
RVN-3M. That title suggests this may have been intended for export to the 'friendly' neighbor next door in the FWL, but if so Marik got sold a bag of rotten fruit. The replacement for all the weapons and equipment is an LRM-15 with two tons of ammo. You now can pick between hanging back and lobbing long-range missiles, or running in to use the beacon launcher. Running in for the latter probably means getting shot at- and running into minimum range issues for the LRM, or at the very least negating their range advantage. Hanging back and lobbing missiles means the Narc does you no good anymore. We've seen this before on Marik units of the day with the Orion and (even worse) the Trebuchet, so this again feels thematic as a Marik-oriented export variant. A pair of small lasers and a small pulse laser provide token short-range 'if these ever fire, your game has gone to hell' power. This isn't the worst Mech you could ever run, but it's deeply flawed, and getting the most out of it is very difficult. If you have other options, you probably want to explore them, and leave the 3M at home.

As the premiere electronic warfare machine of its era, it only made sense that Ravens would continue to push the forefront of Capellan engineering. An electronic warfare machine that falls behind the times is asking for trouble, after all. But where do you really go in the 3060s? Beagle and Guardian remain the name of the game, we don't really have the newer stuff in service yet. TAG is... well, TAG, it's just what it is. How do we up the Raven's game further? You make it the prototype for new tech again- and this time, it's a bigger game-changer than ever. Stealth armor not only makes an appearance, it makes its FIRST appearance- this was the prototype for the Liao's new cheese-tastic tech, and once it proved successful it branched out into other units.
RVN-4L, then, needs that Guardian system to 'power' the armor, then keeps the rest of the good stuff from the 3L: Beagle, Narc, TAG, the SRM. We did bump to ER medium lasers in place of the old stalwarts in the right arm, and a switch to double heat sinks was essentially required so as to use the armor- no one would ever mount stealth armor and stick with single heat sinks, right? (No one look awkwardly at the Wasp, please). The armor is pretty uniform- ten points in every front and limb location other than the center (fifteen), with four on each rear torso and the usual nine in the head. It's enough to stop a PPC anywhere up front- just- and plenty to hold off harassing units that get too close for the armor's special tricks to work- at least until help arrives. This. Is. AMAZING. It really is a clear evolution for the RVN series from curiosity to legit Battlemech to genuinely scary opponent, and a Capellan force that doesn't utilize them is flat-out doing it wrong. And an opponent taking it as just another light Mech is in for a hell of a bad day. It's not often I can call a Mech a genuine game-changer... this really is one. The use and tactics really don't change from the 3L, but the ability to stay alive while you do the dirty deeds a Raven is so good at goes up dramatically.
A couple of variants off the 4L were worked on, as one can imagine- with Ravens being the cutting edge generally of Liao-tech, there's always a push to tweak them a little further to get the most out of their capabilities in an era, it seems. We start here with
RVN-4Lc, a simple but odd unit that drops the Beagle probe for a superfluous ER small laser and a C3 slave system. Look, folks, C3 is a lot of fun if you use it well, as anyone who faces DCMS opponents regularly can attest. But the Confederation... ah, doesn't do that much. There aren't a great deal of Liao units that have a C3 system, master or slave, and it makes this a very odd duck to utilize. If you happen to have a formation to jam it into, great, but otherwise the computer is kind of wasted. Merc forces that have at least semi-friendly terms with the CCAF quartermaster may find this works VERY well as part of a network with foreign units like IS Omnimechs, and in testing here the author found it worked pretty great in a lance with a lightly-borrowed Bishamon.
The other 4L offshoot is a little more in-depth than a swap of the Beagle.
RVN-4Lr drops the Narc system and SRM (and their ammo bins) to gain an MML-7, keeping the SRM's power but adding a twist of long-range ability as well. By the time this comes about, ECM is so common on modern battlefields that Narc's utility has become a little less than it was in '50, and so the removal of the system isn't really a bad thing here. The two tons of ammo for the launcher allow you to carry long and short range warheads, so there's little reason generally to not do so. Of course, the prevalence of ECM also makes the Artemis IV computer attached to the MML equally questionable, so... that's weird. A third ER medium laser sounds like a great addition, with the beefed up firepower making this a much more dangerous unit, but honestly the heat starts to get to be a bit tough to manage, and the author found himself wishing for a third laser, but a switch back to the standard mediums of yesteryear, allowing one to use all of the lasers and keep the armor active while moving for negligible heat. All in all,though, this is the best of the '60s Ravens, but it does take some finesse to get the most out of it.

Now, going back to the 3L for a bit here (we're trying to stay semi-chronological here), early in the hellscape we know now as the Jihad, a unit pops up called
RVN-SR. These are RVN-3Ls (NOT the stealthy 4L) that were captured during Sovereign Justice, the House Hasek war against Liao, and refitted to their own purposes. Those purposes appear to be 'kill everyone' not in an armored unit'. Out go the TAG and medium lasers, in comes a four-gun MG array. I wouldn't call this a great unit in-general- it retains a lot of its electronic warfare abilities, but tries to go for anti-infantry/crowd control roles as well, and it kind of feels like it should have tried for one or the other. But, particularly at that point, its new owners weren't exactly in a position to be picky.
Capellan March forces also refitted captured Ravens into the
RVN-SS version, which the author assumes was the 'super sport' version in line with old Chevys. This one is a little scarier. Out go the SRM and Narc, like on the 4Lr, but in their place come in a beefy Streak SRM-6, another pair of medium lasers to mirror the classic duo in the right arm, then we ruin that symmetry by addint an also-there small laser to the new left arm as well. An extra heat sink does its best to help keep heat under control, but this one takes some finagling of the heat gauge to really work. But... if you do, you get the electronic warfare systems of old (and the artillery spotting!), all you really lost is the Narc that we already said we were struggling to find a role for these days, and the firepower gain was ENORMOUS. It's a Mech that will happily eat another light Mech for lunch, much like the Firefly actually, but while it can sting bigger units it just doesn't have the armor to go toe-to-toe with an Enforcer or something like that- use it as a scout hunter or a 'helper' to finish off wounded units- less 'Raven', more 'Vulture'.
Other people keep getting their hands on Liao's toys! Teach 'em a lesson, boys- let's build more high-tech Ravens and hurl them at our enemies! A high-tech prototype, the
RVN-3X Raven-X has no commonality with the original triple-strength myomer testbed RVN-3X, which makes this a really odd choice for naming. Whatever, we have a really wild bird here. Sporting crazy stuff like composite structure (our first Raven to mess with the bones!), and tossed in an XL gyro to save more weight. With the savings, we dropped the beloved SRM for an MRM-20, a very odd choice for a non-Draconis unit. An Apollo computer 'helps' the missiles (a sideways move at best for these things), but we upgraded to the next generation of electronics with a Bloodhound active probe and Angel ECM system replacing the old stalwarts. Medium X-pulse lasers replaced the old lasers in the right arm for a high-heat but powerful blast. Finally, the ferro-fibrous armor is reinforced by the addition of a Laser Anti-Missile System, gear that can make for an unpredictable heat output, but has no ammo to worry about. It's a VERY advanced unit, all kinds of goodies, and while it's a mere prototype we do see much of its collection of tricks pop up again later. Outside of the oddball MRM, this is a really good Raven.

The Raven-X program lead immediately into the biggest departure from the original design of all- the
RVN-5X Raven II. This big bird isn't just another attempt to cram new tech on the old big-nosed chassis though- it's bigger, gaining weight up to 40 tons now! Endo-steel and stealth armor are no surprise at this point, nor is the the XL engine- if the Raven isn't really supposed to take fire, the vulnerability of the XL engine isn't all that big of a deal, as before. It even bumped the speed to a spiffy 7/11, a handy thing on post-Jihad battlefields. The return of the Angel and Bloodhound systems are no surprise, nor are the classic dual-lasers in the right arm (ER mediums this time). An MML-5 replaces the MRM system on the Raven-X, with two tons of ammo, a much-improved idea thanks to its versatility and... er, not being an MRM rack. But it's the Hypnos TSEMP cannon in the left arm that should be grabbing attention. Detecting hidden units, messing with enemy sensor systems, Ravens have been doing that crap for years. But shutting down an enemy Mech and leaving it vulnerable to other units firing on it (or being swarmed by infantry, armored or otherwise)? That's a neat trick, folks. It's a whole new way to make people fear the walking-nose of doom, and deserves every bit of respect and worry it causes.
Along with the Raven II, a post-Jihad version of the regular 35-ton Raven exists, too.
RVN-5L uses many of the same components as its chubbier cousin, probably a big help for keeping parts trees in stock. The same lasers are in the arm, but the MML of its cousin is dropped for an odd array of SRM-2 one-shot launchers, because... I guess we were nostalgic for the one-shot fad from 3055? These are improved one-shots, at least, but it's still a very strange choice. Of much greater utility is the iNarc launcher, a holdover from the robed-lunatic days, that takes up the left arm. Three tons of pods mean you can play with all the hits that system gets to play with- the author in particular is a big fan of haywire pods, though nemesis can be a lot of fun as well, particularly if you're patrolling the old FWL border and see a lot of LRM-equipped units in raids. Beyond that, the stealth armor is back, run by the Angel system again, and the TAG returns as well (no Bloodhound here). It's a strange unit, with the SRM one-shots, but beyond that it's a very useful spotter and mischief-maker. Oh- and lest we forget, the XL engine here bumps it to being the fastest of all Ravens, at 8/12, so feel free to dash in with the armor active, slap a fun party trick on an enemy unit, and skitter away with high to-hit numbers!
We close with a couple of quick notes here. Two versions are not listed here- these are
RVN-4N and
RVN-4R. These are versions listed on units from the Mechwarrior: Dark Age click game, and we don't have any stats for them not mention outside of that game- so what they do, or whether they're even canon, is questionable (sometimes that game's stats get hard to convert over, or they got convoluted and need some ironing out as in the case of the Sun Cobra... or, sometimes, the info is just retconned out entirely, as in the case of the fate of Peter Steiner-Davion). So we'll have to just wonder for now at what these oddballs were.
The other thing to still do is mention a few offshoots of the Raven program. This being a high-tech masterpiece, it regularly pushed the limits of Liao's technology, and lead to other units either gaining the tech pioneered by the Raven- stealth armor in particular- or leading to whole new units. We won't waste time on the former- you all know what a tech readout looks like- but a few newer ones need special mention. The Men Shen is a beefed-up Raven chassis (55 tons) that serves as Liao's first Omnimech, and the family resemblance is obvious- it's like a Raven and a dustbuster had a lovechild. Another Raven offshoot is the Sha Yu, which became the first all-new unit to mount stealth armor after the Raven 4L project bore fruit in that regard, becoming a high-heat but somewhat-useful sniper unit. And of course, House Kurita appears to have found the Raven concept intriguing, because their Hitman (covered last week by Gorgon!) may look wildly different, but in terms of capabilities and stats is unmistakeably related, losing some muscle to gain speed.

The author would like to congratulate himself on getting through this entire article without once making an Edgar Allen Poe reference.
In any era after 3025, Ravens should be expected to be in a Liao force- their unique and tricky capabilities allowing them to make all kinds of havoc for enemies of the Coordinator. It does a remarkably good job of keeping up with technology as time goes on, with newer versions always pushing the very limits of the era's rules, and it makes dealing with a Raven a VERY frustrating thing to do- it almost always seems to be playing chess on a battlefield of checkers. It's usually worth getting rid of one as early as you can- they tend to be thin-skinned, and their bag of dirty tricks can be dangerous enough to make spending time on getting rid of it worthwhile. Smart Capellan fans though will probably use that to their advantage, too, leading an enemy into an ambush to chase it down, or at the very least causing the enemy to lose focus on other units to chase down the Raven instead and lead them into bad situations. There are few units in Battletech more unpredictable- and dangerous in the hands of an expert player- than a Raven. Go on, find out for yourself.