The Karnov tilt-rotor design has been in service for hundreds of years. In 2920, New Earth Trading Company (NETC) began distributing the Karnov to the Inner Sphere, though they received their entire supply of these vehicles from ComStar. When ComStar revealed the existence of the Com Guard in the early 3030s, they took that opportunity to requisition more of the VTOL units for their own troops. NETC responded to this reduced inventory by building its own manufacturing plant, which came online in late 3043. These facilities brought the availability of the Karnov back to pre-3030 levels. The battle with the Clans on Tukayyid forced the Com Guard to devote all its resources to rebuilding, and ComStar abandoned its arrangement with NETC. Forced to rely solely on their new plant for production, NETC turned this potential setback into an advantage by setting a design team to work creating customized Karnov units. The most exciting version to date incorporates recovered technology.

         The upgraded Karnov is somewhat slower than the original design. NETC reduced the power plant to a DAV 160, accepting a slight reduction in performance to create room for increased defenses and cargo capacity.
         Other than upgrading the vehicle's armor, NETC 's most important defensive alteration to the Karnov was the addition of ScatterGun light machine guns on either side of the unit. Manned by single gunners firing without electronic aids, the machine guns serve to defend a vehicle loading or unloading in a combat zone. This innovation offers a welcome change to relying on the protection of friendly forces operating in the area and has greatly reduced the number of Karnovs lost to enemy infantry. The largely unprotected rotors still represent the vehicle's most vulnerable area.
         The addition of universal hard points to the enlarged cargo bay allows the bay to be reconfigured for a wide range of cargo, including conventional or power armored infantry and light vehicles.

         The upgraded Karnov first became available in 3055, seeing action that year in a number of units. The 23rd Arcturan Guards produced the most notable action in a raid against Sudeten. Hauptmann-General Killson used a number of Karnovs in an operation to drop small teams of infantry behind Clan lines; units assigned to perform sabotage and cause general disruption. After these small-unit actions destroyed a Star of the Eighth Falcon Regulars, Star Colonel Ravill Pryde ordered the Inner Sphere teams hunted down. The Karnovs went back into action, successfully retrieving nearly a third of the troops from the rendezvous points. Now wary of the declared "non-combatant" status of the Karnov, the Jade Falcons attacked a number of the vehicles as they attempted to land, destroying eight of the seventeen Karnov UR transports assigned to the Guards.