Spartan Program (I, II, III, IV)

Project ORION was a Colonial Military Administration project to create super-soldiers for counterinsurgency operations. The program would later be known as SPARTAN-I when ONI assumed full control of the project. Members of Project ORION were known as Raiders.

Project ORION not only analyzed human augmentation but also conducted studies and research that included armor, weapons, software, and even training techniques. Most of its ideas never progressed beyond initial prospecting and prototypes, but traces remain of what the CMA and ONI could have achieved. Project ORION had ambitious plans for complete weapons systems for its super-soldiers.

This project is notable for being the first SPARTAN Program. Its successors were the Spartan IIs, of whom, to date, only Sergeant Johnson remains on active duty.

The SPARTAN-II program was the first major success of the SPARTAN programs, an effort to produce elite soldiers through mechanical and biological augmentation. Originally conceived as the second generation of Project ORION under "Generation-II ORION" and "Project ORION Generation Two," SPARTAN-II would be the first in the series to merge advanced exoskeleton technology with the soldiers' superior physical constitution.

The second-generation Spartans underwent the most extensive and invasive physical enhancements of all Spartan generations; the onset of these enhancements at early puberty increased their body mass and height to approximately two meters in adulthood. Among them were Blue Team members like John-117 (better known as Master Chief), Fred-104, Linda-058, and Kelly-096 (better known as the team's Rabbit), as well as members of Red Team like Spartan Jerome, and members of the disbanded Delta Team 4 like Cal-141 (Callie Hall/Calypso), among others.

The SPARTAN-III program was a top-secret project initiated by Beta-5 Division, Section Three of the Office of Naval Intelligence, to produce inexpensive, expendable supersoldiers to halt the Covenant advance against the Outer Colonies. Actively deployed in combat between 2536 and 2552, the SPARTAN-IIIs turned the tide of several crucial battles in the Human-Covenant War. After the war, the remaining SPARTAN-III personnel were given the opportunity to join the newly formed Spartan Operations, supplementing the ranks of the SPARTAN-IVs.

The SPARTAN-III project was both a successor to and a complement to the SPARTAN-II program. Created and designed by Colonel James Ackerson of the Office of Naval Intelligence, the SPARTAN-IIIs were intended to be the next generation of super-soldiers. Composed primarily of vengeful orphans from fallen colonies, they would be cheaper to arm, train, and produce. Selected from a larger pool of candidates, they would also be more numerous than their SPARTAN-II predecessors. They would rely more on teamwork and numerical superiority than on advanced technology and equipment to achieve effectiveness. Among these were the Spartan IIIs of Gamma Company, as well as those from Beta Company, such as Lucy B-091, and the members of Noble Team, including Jorge A-051, Emile A-239, and Noble 6, among others. The only survivor from Noble Team is Jun A-266, along with a few other survivors from Beta Company.

Project ORCHID is the codename for the SPARTAN-IV Augmentation Program, a suite of biochemical and surgical augmentation procedures performed on Spartan-IV supersoldiers. Due to practical necessities arising from the SPARTAN-IV program's return to Project ORION recruitment protocols—namely, the use of adults as candidates—as well as technological advancements, the fourth-generation augmentation suite differs considerably from the procedures used in the SPARTAN-II and SPARTAN-III programs. While SPARTAN-IV augmentations enhance subjects' strength and speed, the improvements in these areas are not as extensive as in the two previous programs, and their technological underpinnings are significantly different. However, the SPARTAN-IV augmentation series also introduces many specialized procedures not applied to previous generations of Spartans, and the second-generation Delaware Mjolnir armor, standard issue for all Spartan-IVs, is able to effectively close the physiological gap between them and previous generations due to its superior physical enhancement. Like the augmentation procedures of previous SPARTAN programs, Project ORCHID is sponsored by Section Three of the Office of Naval Intelligence.

However, its prototype phase was catastrophic, with its first 9 out of 10 candidates severely damaged or killed. The only survivor was Ilsa Zane, who was left with serious aftereffects and homicidal tendencies resulting from constant mental white noise and exhaustion from strenuous exertion. For this reason, subsequent generations of Spartan IVs were given the same enhancements, but less powerful and less aggressive. These included Spartans from Team Majestic such as DeMarco, Thorne, and Sarah Palmer, as well as others, such as Team Osiris with Jameson Locke, Kay, Buck, and others associated with the program.