Project Lorica

Project Lorica was the name of the classified military research programme of the Oceanic Econo-Political Union's Special Research Force that resulted in the creation of the Lorica platform as a conceptual framework and international standard. Active from 2014 to 2029 and spawning sub-programs that lasted through the accession of the OEPU into the Western Sphere Hegemony at the conclusion of the Third World War, the program is perhaps the single most influential military research program of the 21st Century. The program was created using black budget funds at the personal request of then-OEPU President Duncan Heeler as a response to intelligence information about similar programs in the Eurasian Soviet and Free Market Block, though both efforts were ultimately overshadowed by the better-funded Project Lorica.

Priors

By 2014, the Oceanic Intelligence Agency and national intelligence agencies within the OEPU became aware of the research precursors to Ursa Ruska and the USAF Project Gladius, and in response, Special Research Force was ordered to begin the OEPU's first forrays into the world of military-application piloted robotics. By this time, following the Humanoid Robotics Renaissance in the 1980s and 1990s, several key technologies were already in development or well-established, and the wild success of ECM techniques employed in the 2008 Black Desert Conflict against UFVs had made clear the need for robot combat platforms that were crew served and had a pilot on board.

While initially successful in simulated field trials, these same trials did eventually show some of the key stumbling blocks in the technology, especially the potential complexity as well as the retrospectively obvious problems in attempting to make a single general-purpose design. As a result, prior to the construction of a single prototype, then-SRF director Juan Luiz Ramos directed his engineers to put their focus on creating interoperability standards, and began working through established black budget materiel programs to involve engineers from Durandal Arsenal of Australia, Java Heavy Metals, and Japan's Soshin Heavy Industries in the development of actual prototype models around that standard.

Lorica Prima

In spite of the popular conception, the first completed vehicles built fully around anything resembling the Lorica standard were designated Lorica Prima and were technically civilian vehicles, operating under the SRF's Combat Experiments Team, posing as NGO Serif Specialty Robotics, a paramilitary SAR team working in the Dnepir Hot Zone. While enough modules were delivered to ultimately have constructed a dozen such Lordica Prima vehicles, only 5 were ever fully constructed and field-deployed, where they were described as prototype NBC SAR vehicles used for special operations. The Serif Specialty Robotics front and the Lorica Prima vehicles were in service from 2020 to 2022 and resulting field usage and combat data (mostly gathered during the 2021 Black Desert Conflict) was used to finalize the Lorica Standards and develop the earliest production models.

Lorica Standards V1 the Julius

Shortly after the wind down of the Serif Specialty Robotics front, the first versions of the Lorica standards were finalized, ratified under OEPU law (admittedly, protected under military secrets legislation), and adopted by the manufacturers that had helped create them: Durandal Arsenal, Java Heavy Metals, and Soshin Heavy Industries. This resulted in something of an arms race between the three companies, with all three submitting designs to the OUDF Proving and Procurement Service by 2026: Durandal Arsenal introducing an early version of their popular Dingo, later becoming the Diego product line; Java Heavy Metals introducing their cost-effective Type 26 (later becoming the underpinning design for all of their "type" models); and Shoshin Heavy Industry introducing their prototype Lupus design.

While all three would ultimately be accepted into service after numerous revisions over the years that followed, the first Lorica-Standard model to be accepted into military usage and enter active production was actually another Durandal Arsenal product line, the Julius, which had advantages over the Dingo in terms of its overall versatility and possible second role in Search and Rescue (SAR) efforts; though more expensive, the exceptional robotics quality of the time was also viewed by some in the OUDF chain of command to indicate the model was a more suitable military deterrent. The vehicle entered official military service in 2029, though at the time the Lorica standards were still kept secret, and the model was claimed to be a one-off pattern produced by Durandal Arsenal without military involvement.

The Satoyama Leaks

In 2034, a disgruntled and radicalized Shoshin Heavy Industries engineer named Junichi Satoyama, working under the auspices of Project Clarity, leaked the full specification and worked design files for the Lorica Standard along with early design documents for what would eventually become SHI's earliest models in the Senshi Subarashi product line, their competitive offering to Julius. Satoyama was motivated by Project Clarity rhetoric that releasing military secrets, especially weapon designs, would act as deterrence against warfare by eliminating the illusion of strategic or material advantage, and by personal factors and resentment against management and executive officers at Shoshin Heavy Industries.

Initially regarded as a hoax, the general premise of Satoyama's leaked documents was confirmed when, that same year, the Ursa Ruska project of the Eurasian Soviet Red Army was revealed to the public, and an anonymous KGB official commented that production was significant improved by lessons learned by "Japan's Project Lorica".

Unfortunately, Satoyama's efforts did not have the intended effect, and the resulting proliferation of military robots inspired by or directly adherent to the Lorica Standard resulted in something of a compressed arms race and is considered by most historians to have been a contributing factor in the Third World War.

War-Time Developments

Military units comprised of either entirely Lorica-mounted fighting elements or combined arms doctrine supported by Lorica squads saw service in every theater of World War III, resulting in developments such as the standards surrounding Thruster Effect MUs, efficiencies in construction, and pilot safety. In particular, Lorica units were essential to both sides of the war in the European Theater and the Defence of Australia. By the time the war had moved into its terminal phase in 2039, Lorica units were in service in every national or supranational military in the world, and images of the Duel Over Moscow remain some of the most famous images of the war.

Post War: The Open Lorica Standards

In 2040, the Western Sphere Hegemony, created from the Western Sphere Military Compact created for the purpose of opposing the Eurasian Soviet's aggression in the years leading up to the Third World War, staged Operation Lunar Soldier, a military operation to eliminate "renegade" (in reality, simply unacknowledged) colonies of the Eurasian Soviety on the Moon, involving the first use of Lorica-pattern robots in orbit or on the surface of another celestial body. In response, the Lorica Standards Working Group, a precursor to the Solar Lorica Working Group, updated the Lorica standards with the Lorica-S Space Navigable Extension, citing operator safety concerns, definining standards for rating a Lorica suit as "spaceworthy". In a sense, the LSWG became the final hurrah of Project Lorica, and by 2045 none of the original Project Lorica staff remained involved in LSWG activities or the maintenance of the standard, and the LSWG's NGO status meant that the maintenance of the Lorica Standard was no longer a military concern of the Special Research Force, any other Oceanic Econo-Political Union, or even successor-government agency.

This new "Open Lorica Standard" included alternative specifications for civilian use vehicles in a variety of operations patterned off of the Lorica standard for maintainability and cross-compatibility, and is the same standard maintained by the Solar Lorica Working Group to this day.