The History of Power Armor | Fallout Lore

power armor is combat technology designed to protect soldiers on the battlefield wearing power armor gives the soldier a significant increase in strength allowing them to carry heavy weapons to locations deemed inaccessible to battle tanks and other large vehicles but they weren't always used for war they were also used for crowd control and even to resolve competitive disputes between companies but who designed power armor what models are there and how has the great war affected their developments it is worth mentioning that i will not cover any power armor considered non-canon at least not in this video so no chinese vault-tec or eastern brotherhood with the world running out of resources america annexed canada and established their front line in anchorage to protect their increasingly scarce oil fields china would soon march on alaska with general jingwei leading the invasion the trans-alaskan pipeline was liberated and the chinese forces showed no signs of giving it back america was having a difficult time punching through their lines and maintaining ground their battle tanks and other large vehicles just couldn't make it and thanks to the oil shortage they could barely fuel them let alone get them into position they needed a new machine that could do the job of a battle tank but with greater mobility and they needed it to use a different source of fuel something the enemy didn't control the greatest minds of westeck an american defense contractor came together to create the fusion cell a nuclear battery for lack of a better phrase this new fuel was revolutionary allowing both military and civilian technologies to flourish but more importantly it was used to create the tx-28 microfusion pack something small enough yet powerful enough to fuel a new and very capable war machine researchers at west tech had designed a frame for what would later be called power armor this frame used an internalized servo system with a back mounted tx-28 microfusion pack generating over 60 000 watts of energy and high flow hydraulics increasing the operator's strength and carrying capacity as well as the ability to drop from heights without taking any damage it was everything the united states needed to turn the tides in the war for resources now all it needed was armor and this brings me to the many models uses and developers that followed the t45 was the very first suit of power armor to be developed by westack shortly after its creation it was used for a number of different purposes the first was to retake anchorage back from the chinese invaders by countering tanks and infantry and breaking down their supply lines which they would eventually do but not without the aid of another model of power armor which i will explain in just a moment the second purpose was to take the invasion directly to the enemy with infantry and other mechanized divisions as support but this proved to be a bad idea while the t-45 was able to repel invasive forces it was not at all suited to lead one the invasion was a disaster it was nothing more than a net drain on the war effort that wasted time money and worst of all resources but this was not to be the final invasion much like the battle of anchorage all they needed was a more superior suit of power armor to pave the way to victory the third purpose did not involve china or invasions instead it was to control their own people as food shortages and riots swept across the nation the war effort had drained the country of basic needs food water power it was all dwindling and soldiers wearing suits of t-45 who fought in alaska and mainland china to keep their country safe were now back home killing the very people they fought to protect following the great war many of these suits can still be found both abandoned and rusted but also used by the brotherhood of steel specifically the east coast chapter both active members and the outcasts actually use suits of t-45 to fuel their cause even members who were left behind continue to wear it with some replacing pauldrons to give it their own unique feel while others such as the ncr have salvaged suits by removing the joint servos which did make them harder to control but also allowed their soldiers to use them without the need for special training and let's not forget the mp47a a unique variant of t-45 capable of administering medical substances such as medex and with later improvements stimpaks to the operator listen up your goddamn puke you are now wearing prototype medic power armor you take care of me and i'll take care of you the t-51 was the next iteration of power armor and leading up to this point the americans had been anticipating the creation of enemy power armor leading to the development of electromagnetic weapons something they could use to defeat enemy forces wearing power armor this influenced the design of t-51 which unlike its predecessor had a coating of poly laminate composite meaning the operator could actually absorb a portion of kinetic energy without taking serious damage to go with this the armor was given a rounded profile which greatly improved the chances of deflecting projectiles and shrapnel if that wasn't enough the armor was covered in an ablative layer of micron silver capable of reflecting laser blasts and gamma radiation coupled with all of these defensive capabilities the suit is hermetically sealed protecting the operator from the elements be it radioactive biological or chemical the helmet is integral to the operator's safety fitted with a rubberized cowl which connects to the chest plate providing an airtight seal without this the operator would be open to the elements making it one of the few weak points although there does seem to be some confusion regarding the helmet's visor ricky from the honest hearts dlc will say that he killed a brotherhood of steel paladin by shooting them through the visor the courier can say if they have the power armor training perk that the eye slits of t-series power armor are bulletproof so who's wrong ricky is a compulsive liar and a psycho addict while the courier is us we're going to believe our character before we believe some stranger however there is some truth to what ricky has said as sheena from the crater has experienced something similar having found a t-51 helmet with a bullet hole through the visor so while it may not be a common thing it can still happen an interesting feature of the t51 is the suit's ability to recycle waste into potable water i believe this choice was intended to be used in the event of nuclear war in a world where clean drinking water is a bit of an issue yet soldiers can still travel without the need to worry earlier i mentioned a second model of power armor being used in the battle of anchorage and the invasion of china and this is that model the t-51 gave the us the final push it needed to overthrow the invading chinese and reclaim the oil reserves in alaska it also allowed the american offensive to be pushed all the way back to beijing during their counter-invasion as well as enforcing law back home before the great war a contract between the federal government and grafton steel was made codenamed project phoenix the primary goal was to increase the steel yield of their mills in order to aid the war effort to achieve this they wanted to develop a suit of power armor that would allow workers to withstand extreme temperatures while mining and servicing machines without the need to halt the entire process it would make a very dangerous job less so and more productive and time efficient it appears they decided to use the t-51 model as a foundation to the armor but only the helmet was achieved before the bombs fell after the great war the brotherhood of steel are seen frequently wearing this model both the remnants of hidden valley as well as the entire chapter at lost hills in california who actually improved the t-51 with a special chemical treatment resulting in a hardened version with superior capabilities and let's not forget the ultra sight power armor which uses ultra sight ore as additional armor plating originally developed by the lost hills brotherhood before being transmitted to appalachia to be completed but never was due to the scorched plague which wiped out the entire chapter the t60 is an evolution of the t45 design it first entered service after the battle of anchorage months before the bombs fell and the world was forever changed the t-60 was rapidly deployed and extensively used by the u.s army deployments were mostly domestic working alongside t-45 and t-51 units struggling together to maintain order as the country collapsed after the great war t-60 became a rare sight until the reformed brotherhood of steel recovered a substantial number of these suits from a pre-war stockpile and adopted the t-60 as their standard service uniform development of the t-60 power armor has continued after the great war with a tesla variant where the arms and torso have been outfitted with additional technical components making them easily distinguishable when compared against the standard parts with three heavy duty electrodes on either pauldron two on each forearm and two large tanks on the back of the torso these tesla retraction coils increase the operator's energy attacks all the while dampening those that come their way likely created after the brotherhood of steel overthrew the enclave in the capital wasteland whose forces were known to employ tesla power armor more on that later the t-65 is another model that saw developments just before the great war but no production models are known to exist only schematics the appearance of the t-65 is a stark contrast when compared to the others mentioned so far the armor is incredibly bulky with layered pauldrons torso and legs the visor consisting of two small lenses no doubt making it more difficult to hit as for the schematics they were entrusted to vault 79 before the great war along with the country's gold reserve from fort knox entrusted to the secret service agents for safe keeping it is unknown if this armor was ever intended to be worn by the secret service agents it would have likely helped in the event of a raid or internal struggle but for now it seems they were simply holding onto it until further notice all t-series helmets complete the suit hermetically sealed to protect the operator against a number of airborne diseases and contaminants chemical biological and nuclear included fitted with mounting ports on the ears where more often than not a small lamp is attached allowing the operator to see in low-light conditions the lenses to some degree are bulletproof and an air filtration system enables the operator to breathe in places a person without power armor could not which may include the moon depicted on a wall in the museum of freedom is an astronaut in what appears to be a suit of t-51 during an event known as the sea of tranquility conflict sadly the law concerning this event is extremely limited the x01 was the beginning of a new radical approach giving the new suit its very own style with the intentions of superseding the t-series that came before it development before the great war was plagued with many issues which prevented the suit from being mass produced however those that were produced were given to both the presidential bodyguards and the nuka-cola corporation as part of project cobalt a military chemical and weapons program that allowed john caleb bradberton the ceo of the nuka-cola corporation access to high-tech military hardware including the x01 shortly before the bombs fell the schematics for the x01 were safely secured at both the poseidon and white spring facilities this allowed the enclave to continue developing improving and producing new and improved suits of x01 although they would remain limited in number with a single helmet being discovered by the brotherhood of steel although the institute also seems to have discovered the schematics even creating a new modified polymerized casting mix which improved the suit's physical resistance the classic pauldrons of the t-series has been replaced in favor of what can only be described as a hump something which does an arguably better job at protecting the back of the head and neck of the operator as well as reducing the chances of being fatally wounded from behind during an ambush the waste recycling system seen in the t-51 was also adopted allowing soldiers to survive in the wasteland for weeks without water there is a mark ii variant of this model which is a little heavier but also more resistant to radiation not to be confused with the advanced power armor mark ii from fallout 3 which i will refer to as the black devil power armor the advanced mark 1 is a continuation and improvement of the pre-existing x-01 made to suit the post-war wasteland the hump is still very much a design feature with the overall shape more slimline the exterior piping that was exposed on the x01 is now hidden beneath the armor protecting the operator's air filtration system as for the addition of a fan it could suggest the armor is powered by a miniature nuclear reactor or has an air conditioning unit but the law does not say for certain developed by the enclave in 2220 it was the first power armor to be designed produced and employed after the great war within 20 years the advanced mark 1 had become the standard service armor for all enclave soldiers in california and continued to be worn even after the chosen one had destroyed their hq on the oil rig those that survived yet did not leave for the capital wasteland to rebuild their strength were left to fend for themselves using their power armor to withstand the wastes however those seen wearing it especially within the ncr territories were captured and tried as enclave war criminals leading to those remaining such as the remnants and arcade gannon hiding their power armor just as the t-60 has a tesla variant the advanced mark one does too it was originally issued to enclave officers stationed at navarro jury rigged with tesla attraction coils capable of dispersing a large percentage of the damage done by energy weapons to my knowledge the only remaining suit of advanced mark 1 tesla belongs to arcade ganon but this wasn't always going to be the case as remnant tesla armor speculated to be a prototype would have been in the remnant's possession but was cut from the game before the final release the advanced mark ii also known as the black devil power armor was designed to replace the older mark 1 with new lightweight ceramic composites providing superior protection to the operator following the destruction of the oil rig the majority of the enclave were relocated to raven rock in the capital wasteland where engineers and scientists alike began developing a new and improved suit of power armor the result was the black devil featuring a more effective segmented armor plating coupled with separate pauldrons which have replaced the hump of the original supposedly giving the operator better protection which was the entire reason for replacing the pauldrons with a hump in the first place so someone is confused i just can't figure out who much like the mark 1 the black devil also has a tesla variant a standard suit of mark ii heavily modified with tesla retraction coils providing a greater level of defense against energy weapons all the while using the attraction coils to boost their own damage the most significant difference between the black devil and tesla variant other than the obvious are the now rounded pauldrons i don't think this was changed to improve the chances of deflecting projectiles instead acting as a larger surface area for the additional components to be attached strictly reserved for the most important guarding details such as escorting kernel autumn defending the purifier at the jefferson memorial and protecting the entrance to raven rock the hellfire is another iteration of power armor developed by the enclave a unique heat resistant armor capable of withstanding extreme temperatures the prototype was completed in 2080 at the white springs bunker in appalachia and shipped to vault 51 meanwhile the final version was produced and deployed by the enclave almost two centuries later aboard the mobile base crawler at the adams air force base in maryland while the hellfire power armor is superior to all previous models both pre-war and post-war the conflict with the brotherhood the destruction of raven rock and the battle for project purity prevented the hellfire from replacing the black devil as the standard service armor although it was possible for an entire squad to be given this armor more often than not a commander would be given a single suit with supporting roles still wearing the black devil power armor as is seen with the sigma squad aboard the mobile base crawler despite the superiority of the armor it was far too late in the war to make a difference and the research facilities that held the capability to produce hellfire on a massive scale were either destroyed or captured by the brotherhood of steel meaning until they or perhaps another enclave base with the knowledge and capability to do so continues producing more the hellfire power armor will remain in limited supply the most notable change to the advanced power armor series is the helmet which has been completely redesigned the visor replaced with singular lenses similar to the t65 the electrical lamp attachment has also changed no longer sitting on the side instead integrated into the helmet behind the lenses the shape more reminiscent of the t-51 with curved angles improving the chances of deflecting projectiles veering away from militant designs and purposes brings us to the exc17 excavator developed by garagan mining co it was intended to protect company miners from rockfalls and airborne contaminants all the while increasing their work speed both safely and sufficiently advertised all over appalachia as the future of mining and it very well could have been if not for the crooked competition harold frost the lead research of the t-45 was hired by vivian garrigan the owner of garagan mining to develop the suit which he was confident he could do not within a couple of years like he had done with the t-45 but a matter of months this belief was soon cut short after the suit ran into durability issues most notably the arms taking the brunt of the stress when mining causing fractures and sheared gears weakening the suit's integrity from there the research team had decided to use black titanium as the main material an ore deemed too expensive for combat use but perfectly acceptable for a corporate design it was a good idea since the material was local and had the necessary tensile strength to prevent the arms from breaking while the black titanium solved the durability problem the suit's extra weight now posed another issue and that was finding enough power to fuel the suit the t-45 reactor just wasn't enough and after numerous failed attempts they soon settled on using an ultrasite reactor but had to agree to a 10-year commitment with atomic mining services in order to use their patented ore as part of their design after further testing and a near meltdown the reactor was functioning as intended but still the prototype was not ready pressured by both ams's reveal of watoga and horn right industrial a rival company's new line of robot auto miners harold and his team were forced to work every waking hour for almost a month but the project was finished and to top it all off harold had done it three months ahead of schedule pushing the power armor to the limit showed it to be a more than capable tool even more so when bryce carahan was able to break the company's record for the greatest number of or mined in a single day things were looking up or at least they were until vivian challenged horn right's auto miners to a man vs machine or mining competition despite her faith and their impressive new power armor hornwright would claim victory after favouring interference from his vice president dutch wharton made sure the results was in their favor and by no less than a single truckload of ore even though the win was preposterous and minuscule in scope hornwright capitalized on this victory while garagan's stocks plummeted allowing horn right to take over the company and despite seeing the suits as black titanium coffins would apply the suit's mineral detection technology to their own auto miners or at least they would have if not for the great war which did kill the mining industry almost entirely but did give the excavator suits a new lease of life with the responders and then again with the vault dwellers of vault 76 raider power armor is a collection of salvaged t-45 and t-51 pieces a t-45 chest with t-51 arms and the rest of the armor legs included being scrap metal welded together in a mish-mash fashion the helmet is as far as i can tell not from any of the known models although it does show some level of expertise such as the transceiver on the back reinforcement of the faceplate protective visor respirator and even a flashlight due to the nature of the armor it isn't as effective as a full suit but it does provide a significant amount of protection when compared to the usual rags that raiders wear allowing those capable of modifying and reconstructing a power armor harness to wreak havoc against settlers and local militia trying to restore some resemblance of a normal life one question i find myself coming back to is where do jetpacks come into all of this we know they exist because we can use them but we don't know if they are pre-war or post-war or a combination of both as far as i can tell there isn't anything to suggest they were made before the bombs fell only that they could have been because of the tesla science magazine that shows three soldiers wearing power armor blasting off into the sky but other than that nothing now despite the lack of evidence i do believe jet packs are pre-war just look at what humanity was capable of once again referring to the space battle on the moon so i don't think a jet pack is beyond their capability you can actually be rewarded with a jet pack by the brotherhood of steel in fallout 4 and i believe that wherever they found their pre-war t-60 stockpile also had jet packs and the one thing that makes me think that is the jet pack they reward you with is made for a suit of t-60 i'm not saying the brotherhood isn't capable of building a jet pack they built the pridwin and adjusted power armor to allow one of their members to walk again i just don't think they came up with the idea if they didn't find any jet packs among the t60 stockpile then they at least found the schematics and then proceeded to produce them but i'm just one person what do you think about jetpacks are they pre-war or post-war did the brotherhood come up with the idea or did they find them during their travels from the capital wasteland to the commonwealth so power armor is a piece of pre-war technology all stemming from the same frame produced by westec it has continued post-war with several new iterations each improving upon the last beginning with the t45 and ending at least for now with hellfire be sure to show your support by liking the video and subscribing if you haven't already for more fallout content if there's anything you would like to see in a later video leave a comment and i'll see what i can do with that said thank you as always for watching and i'll see you in the next adventure

Channel: Synonymous

Views: 2,019,951

Keywords: synonymous, fallout, lore, fallout lore power armor, t-45, t-51, t-60, t-65, x-01, advanced mark 1, advanced mkI, black devil, hellfire, exc-17, excavator, raider, prototype, frame, harness, fusion cell, west tek, battle of anchorage, invasion of china, great war, battery, how to find power armor, where is power armor, power armor retcon, fusion core, tesla power armor, power armor jet pack, jet pack location, arcade gannon family tesla, The History of Power Armor | Fallout Lore

Id: FndY2yBmYB4

Length: 28min 45sec (1725 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 19 2021