Well first off, i saw the current tech tree and edited it to add the technologies in the 'Orphanage' section to where i think are approprite locations on the tree and attached a picture of my proposed now tech tree
I also read the Profiles for the Raptor-class Combat Transport, Hyperion-class Armed Dropship and the Herakles-class Heavy Lifter and have some proposals of adjustment for them.
Raptor-class Combat Transport,
Combat Transport vehicles in reality are heavily armed with light troop transport capability. So i think we should make the Raptor an Air-to-Air combat aircraft with capability of landing and deploying 4 or 5 troops on the crash site instantly, instead of having to send out a firebird everytime a UFO crashes and waiting even longer.
Hyperion-class Armed Dropship,
As liek before, reality armed dropships are some-what like the firebird in that they support regular troop transport but with light defencive capabilies. So this Armed dropship should be like a more upgraded version of the Firebird, in that it tranports more troops, (10-12 maybe?) and has the same if not one or two more weapon slots on it.
Herakles-class Heavy Lifter,
Now this i think can serve a very large and useful pourpose. As it currently stands this is suposedly to carry 12 troops and 2 UGV's, well for one, its a HEAVY lifter it falls under that catagory easily. But a HERAHLES heavy lifter!? Thus such a title means it should be able to carry more and be able to take a beating before falling to battle. I have just the idea to make it fitting for its title, Land Vehicles
Land Vehicles
The title is sef explanatory really. I think we should add things like light tanks, heavy tanks, anti air trucks and even Troop crawlers. But obviously not with those names, as i've seen multiple times that requests not to be named after real world objects. We can send these vehicles but only via land, so they themselves will have travel time. But being land, their travel time will be longer than air transports but thay can be made cheaper to counteract that fact. But this is where the Herakles-class Heavy Lifter can be famous for its name, it can be the only aircraft able to take one vehicles with it to a mission giving the deployed troops extra needed firepower!
(But depending on the vehicles weight can depend on how much the aircrafts travel speed can get lowered, meaning more firepower, yes but a slightly longer wait until the mission.
)
Light tanks can be just that, a light armored vehicle with a machiene gun on its top.
Heavy tanks can be slow heavy armored vehicles with a powerful weapon like the rocket launcher.
Anti air trucks can be sent out at like a mobile SAM site and return to base just like an aircraft interceptor.
Last but not least, the Troop crawler, can be a fast medium armored transport to take troops to a UFO crash site. (land equivlant of the firebird)
Of course all of these options will be slower than regular aircraft, but their cost can be greatly reduced compared to aircraft making them a cheap solution for people running low on cash.
Also in case your wonering, i did not include any of these vehicles in my edited version of the tech tree attached to this post