From Team Fortress Wiki

“

— The Heavy Many Tanks! ”

Carrier Tanks are enormous troop carriers that deliver robots in Mann vs. Machine. They first appeared as a teaser on 2Fort, Badwater Basin, Double Cross, and Granary in the August 10, 2012 Patch.

In Mann vs. Machine mode, they are animated with spinning antennae, but in the standard maps, there are no animations.

The tanks are shown in the Mann vs. Machine trailer to deploy Gray Mann's robot army the team is to defend against. Unlike the videos, in-game, the robot armies are not seen leaving the carrier tanks but instead spawn in an area between the carrier and the field of action. In the Two Cities Update, robots were updated to spawn nearby or inside the carrier tank. In the missions Decoy and Coal Town the tank seems empty, but in Mannworks a Tank Robot can be seen inside the open tank bay.

Locations in Standard Maps

August 10, 2012 Patch

[Undocumented] Added a Carrier tank to the skyboxes in 2Fort, Badwater Basin, Double Cross, and Granary.

August 15, 2012 Patch (Mann vs. Machine Update)

August 20, 2013 Patch

Added Total War: Rome II "Romevision" promo for Mann vs. Machine mode.

November 21, 2013 Patch (Two Cities Update)

[Undocumented] Robots now spawn from inside and nearby the carrier tank.

Trivia

The design of the Carrier Tanks references the Robot Disposal Car sent to capture Astro in the last third of the first episode of the 1980 Astro Boy TV anime.

The front end of the design closely resembles a 2007 Dodge Challenger R/T.

Gallery