

Since the establishment of these protocols humans have been using performance-enhancing equipment and augmentations to make them stronger and faster than previously possible. The basic concept for the SPARTAN programs has been around since the late 22nd century when the first bioengineering protocols were developed for the Interplanetary War. 4.1 UNSC Pelican Boarding Craft (Spartans).3.1 ORION Project augmented personnel ("Spartan-Is").

The Spartan supersoldiers have traditionally been supplied with state-of-the-art equipment and technology, the most iconic being the MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor first worn by the Spartan-IIs and later utilized to a great extent by the SPARTAN-IV supersoldiers. While formerly serving within the various conventional military branches of the UNSC (mainly the Navy), the Spartans were brought under a single organization with the formation of the military branch known as Spartan Operations to accommodate the growing number of Spartans in the fourth-generation program following the end of the Human-Covenant War.

The latest installment, SPARTAN-IV, returned to the idea's roots by using consenting adult volunteers primarily drawn from the various special forces units of the UNSC. The subsequent programs, SPARTAN-II and SPARTAN-III, were highly successful, but also controversial because of their dubious ethics concerning the use children as candidates, particularly in the Spartan-II program where risk of injury or death in the augmentation procedures was relatively high. The first major effort to create augmented supersoldiers was the ORION Project, later retroactively dubbed "SPARTAN-I", which used operatives drafted from the UNSC. Although the word "SPARTAN" is written in all capital letters when used in reference to the programs in a formal context, it is not an acronym the supersoldiers are known simply as "Spartans".
HALO 5 SPARTANS SERIES
Spartans or SPARTAN Programs are members of a series of United Nations Space Command projects designed to create physically, genetically, technologically, and mentally superior supersoldiers as special fighting units. They stand alone - undaunted - before the mightiest enemy in the universe. A symbol representative of all incarnations of Spartan programs.
