MJOLNIR armor

Stuff on MJOLNIR and its development.

Development
Each "Mark"-designated generation is an iterative platform, and each of them evolved considerably over the years, both generation-wide and individually. However, the core architecture and tech stayed the same. The Marks were paradigm shifts that completely overhauled both the suit's hardware and software. In addition to the best-known changes, there were numerous tune-ups and adjustments to every system, both internal and external.

Mark IV
The Mark IV was first upgraded before the suit was even widely issued, adding a refractive iridescent coating to disperse directed-energy strikes. Later iterations of the suit's armor plating would be modified to further support the coating's effectiveness.


 * Phase 1 (2525) Base Mark IV suit with
 * Phase 2 (2527) Upgraded with knowledge gathered from engagements with the Covenant. Improved thermal regulation layer, integrated vacuum sealant foam dispensers, and partly reconfigured armor plating.
 * Phase 3 (2536) Design streamlined for increased variability and field repairs.

Mark V
The Mark V came in two major phases:


 * Phase 1 (2550) not only brought the aging internal design architecture up to date with advances made in materials science and power transmission during the war, but also introduced energy shielding as an integrated fixture of the suit; while experimental variants of the Mark IV had been fielded previously with external shield units, these were error-prone, imprecise and cumbersome.
 * Phase 2 (2552) added a functioning AI processing memory-crystal layer, which remains the single most expensive addition to the MJOLNIR platform.
 * Project AQUILA (2554), designed with the intent of creating a leaner and more cost-effective MJOLNIR variant, produced a battlesuit platform built on the core architecture of the Phase 1-era Mark V, omitting the prohibitively expensive AI substrate layer while incorporating some of the optimization upgrades of the Mark VI. The AQUILA suit was issued mostly to SPARTAN-IIIs and SPARTAN-IIs operating without integrated AI, though it would eventually be phased out in favor of the Phase 3 Mark VI as the crystal-substrate layer technology became cheaper to manufacture.

Mark VI
The Mark VI did not add major features like its predecessor had, largely focusing on optimizing the technologies developed for the Mark V and integrating them more thoroughly into a coherent whole. While advanced for its time, the Mark V's shield system was still relatively wasteful and crude in light of new advances made over the past two years. As well, the AI crystal layer had been hastily added to a suit that still partly relied on legacy technology, causing issues with power management in particular. The introduction of the second-phase Mark VI several years later would partly remedy these issues, though the armor would remain prodigiously expensive for some time due to the complex manufacturing process required for the unique symbiosis of exotic technologies.

The Mark VI's power distribution used Covenant-derived metamaterials as well as a fine-tuned quantum mirror array to optimize the energy shields' shape in much more detail as well as reducing power consumption. This required a complete overhaul of the suit's internal architecture, which enabled several further changes to the AI processing layer. However, the system was more also delicate than that of the Mark V, and required more frequent maintenance.


 * Phase 1 (2552) New plating structure and layer construction, optimized shielding and power management suite.
 * Phase 2 (2556) Cybersecurity upgrades etc.
 * Phase 3 (2564) Streamlining of manufacturing processes and an overhaul of plating materials and composition to modern specs.