Like the USAF, the PLAN-SF relied for a long time on modified civilian OTVs and drop-capsules for exo-atmospheric space-mobile operations. Civilian OTVs have proved bulky and fragile for military use, and drop capsules expensive, bulky and inflexible. Unlike the USAF, however, the Chinese do not make SDVs the beginning and end of their space-force projection capability, and so are unembarrassed about developing state-of-the-art landing craft. It was decided that fission drives lacked the deltaV necessary to effectively project force to all airless bodies in the Solar System, so following the Pacific War the PLAN-SF commissioned the design of a fusion pulse-based craft.

The Chan's design features two horizontal hulls, bearing the vertically-mounted engines, fuel, and landing gear, connected by a wide structure bearing the cockpit above and cargo grapple below. The cargo is underslung between the hulls; cargo containers and some vehicles can be carried directly by the grapples, other cargos require the use of a cargo pallet. In either case, cargo can be dropped directly on landing and the shuttle is ready for lift-off with minimal delay.

The Chan's engines have a so-called 'cool' mode which reduces heat damage to cargo on lift-off — at least to armoured vehicles and the more robust containers — which employs water-injection to reduce the temperature of the exhaust to merely fission rocket levels. The half-space of water tank in each outrigger enables 75 seconds of 'cool' mode.

The Chan has been designed with high modularity to aid maintenance in the far-flung corners of the Solar System. Port and starboard hulls are identical, as is the fore and aft of each hull. Each of the eight pulse engines can be swapped with any other on the craft, and landing ladars and docking radars can be installed in the appropriate positions on either hull. All of which enables two (or more) damaged Chans to be rebuilt into one working vehicle with a minimum of effort.

Each outrigger hull is a cylinder 48' long and 10' in diameter, and has a 48' square folding radiator mounted above. The cockpit is a sphere 9.1' in diameter. As is usual with PLAN-SF spacecraft, the pilot is a combat bioroid or human. The cockpit includes four passenger seats for cargo specialists, though these can be removed to provide space for 125 cf of loose cargo.

PLAN-SF have been quite discreet about the Chan, and little hard data is available. Gang Lung SCVs are known to carry a number of Chans as part of their normal complement, and Chans are beginning to be deployed to the various PLAN-SF Transport Groups. During the 'Rust Banner IV' fleet exercises of 2099, Chans of the 3rd Transport Group made repeated simulated Martian landings, while actually remaining above the atmosphere. It is not known whether this was purely out of environmental considerations or due to a lack of capability on the Chan's part. (Some analysts believe that Chans have more than enough deltaV to allow a slow, unstreamlined descent through the Martian atmosphere, although there is much controversy.)

Crew: 1 Pilot (Piloting (High Performance Spacecraft), Electronics Operation (Sensors, Communications).

Design: 2 x Outriggers: Cylinder Hull (7.7 spaces, nanocomposite, heavy frame); cDR/cPF 2/1 (nanocomposite). Cockpit: Spherical Hull (1.5 spaces, nanocomposite, heavy frame); cDR/cPF 2/1 (nanocomposite). Chameleon surface.

Modules: Outriggers: 5 compact HT fusion pulse drives; 1 tank (ultralight, nuclear pellet); 0.25 tank (ultralight, water); small radar or ladar; hull radiators 1.5 ksf; folding radiators 2.25 ksf; 0.31 empty space. Cockpit: 1 old cockpit; 0.25 passenger (4 seat); small PESA; 1 external cradle (50 ton capacity).

Statistics: EMass 132; LMass 206; CMass 194; Cost M$28.8; cHP 113; Size Modifier +4; HT12; Maintenance Interval 7.5 hours; RRA 7.5 ksf.

Performance: sAccel: 0.64. Burn Endurance 3000 seconds. Burn Points 1926. Delta-V: 5.8 mps.

Variants: Versions have been reported with 25Kj rapid pulse lasers mounted on one or both outriggers, believed to be intended for landing zone suppressive fire.