| rdfs:comment | - Most imagine the MJOLNIR project to be a single suit used continuously during the Human-Covenant War between 2525 and 2552. If it is possible for this to be any further from the truth, it is difficult to concieve how, and in hindsight the idea that the most advanced soldiers that humanity has ever fielded would use the exact same equipment for nearly thirty years unchanced is ludicrous. The introduction of the Mark IV was without precedent, perhaps akin to the invention of the lance or the sword; this was unknown territory, revolutionising the already revolutionary way that their Spartan operators were able to wage war, and with it came many problems that nobody could have foreseen, sometimes shockingly so. Field patches were made either by technicians or even by the Spartans themselves fo
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| abstract | - Most imagine the MJOLNIR project to be a single suit used continuously during the Human-Covenant War between 2525 and 2552. If it is possible for this to be any further from the truth, it is difficult to concieve how, and in hindsight the idea that the most advanced soldiers that humanity has ever fielded would use the exact same equipment for nearly thirty years unchanced is ludicrous. The introduction of the Mark IV was without precedent, perhaps akin to the invention of the lance or the sword; this was unknown territory, revolutionising the already revolutionary way that their Spartan operators were able to wage war, and with it came many problems that nobody could have foreseen, sometimes shockingly so. Field patches were made either by technicians or even by the Spartans themselves for minor glitches and deficiencies, but permanent solutions were needed - with the almost dizzying number of offshoot projects, customised variants, and prototype testbed suits developed as part of the UNSC's various special weapons programs, the Mark IV would end up with almost three dozen different variants. Most of these were single-use prototypes, and many never even saw combat. Others were custom-designed for a number of SPARTAN-II teams, incorporating more advanced, sometimes experimental, technology, than the standard suits. Still more featured functions that would appear in later iterations of the MJOLNIR series, such as early energy shield generators, miniaturised fusion reactors, improved user interfaces and improved processing power, and support for a Seventh-Generation Smart AI. Usually, each function was prototypes with a single suit - the technology to incorporate all of these technologies into a single suit would have to wait until the MJOLNIR Mark V. The Mark IV/Vajra II variant can be said to be the early forerunner to the Mark V suit, and while it lacked the ability to carry an AI, it was the first combat system to use energy shield technology, deployed in 2531 to mixed results, and again successfully in 2542 - a full ten years before the Mark V would become standard equipment among the Spartan-II personnel. Used by a number of Spartan-II (and later, Spartan-III) teams, the Vajra II was pioneered by personnel from the failed Project VAJRA, and improved on many of the original systems of the Mark IV, developing components and designs that would lead to the development of the Mark V.
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