T-51b Powered Infantry Armor or Power Armor

represented the peak of armored infantry

technology before the Great War, developed in the
laboratories of the West Tek Research Facility. At
the end of the Anchorage Reclamation in January
2077, the armor had become standard issue for
American Soldiers in the Army's Mechanized
Cavalry Regiments. Now, only the most
technologically advanced factions with ties to the
pre-Great War American military or federal
government, such as the Brotherhood of Steel or
the Enclave, have access to this type of Power
Armor.

 August 2065: The need for increased mobility

among the units of the US Army Mechanized
Cavalry leads the American government's
defense contractors to focus their research on
the development of a man-based tank - the
ultimate result is Powered Infantry Armor.
 2065 - 2067: Research and development into
Power Armor intensifies among the different
firms involved in the project and several
prototypes are developed, many of which
prove to be unworkable once they are
deployed in the field. These prototypes pave
the way for several major future advances in
materials science, robotics, and nuclear fusion
technology in the decade before the outbreak
of the Great War.
 Summer 2066: The first crude nuclear
microfusion cell is unveiled, one of the civilian
technological spin-offs of the Power Armor
project. The new technology is soon
incorporated into a wide variety of consumer
goods, including robots and automobiles. It
begins to alleviate the terrible energy shortages
plaguing the United States, but was unable to
fully alleviate the world's energy problems
before the outbreak of the Great War in 2077
made the problem moot. Ironically, had the
fusion microcell technology had more time to
disseminate across the globe from the United
States, it would have solved most of the
world's energy problems, thus ending the need
for the armed conflicts that ultimately lead to
the downfall of human civilization.
 2067: The first suit of T-45d Power Armor is
deployed for combat duty among American
infantrymen fighting the Chinese occupation
of Alaska. While lacking the full mobility of
future versions of the armor, this early suit of
Power Armor is incredibly effective against
conventional Chinese tanks and infantry. Its
ability to allow a single infantryman to carry
heavy ordinance becomes key in various
localized conflicts during the Sino-American
War, and it has the power to destroy entire
towns without endangering the wearer from
attacks by conventional firearms or even
 missile launchers. The Chinese People's
Liberation Army rushes to create its own
versions, but the Chinese are many years
behind the United States' work on the project.
 2074: Contrary to the United States' claim of
waging a defensive war that seeks only to
retake Alaska from the Chinese, entire
mechanized infantry divisions outfitted with
Power Armor are deployed in an American
invasion of China, but they become bogged
down during intense combat on the Chinese
mainland, putting a further drain on American
resources and supply lines in the Sino-
American War.
 June 2076: The T-51b Power Armor prototype
is finally completed, resulting in the
development of the suit of Power Armor that
the Vault Dweller finds in Fallout. This suit
represents the pinnacle of Power Armor
technology before the outbreak of the Great
War ends all technological progress for many
decades. Many of these units are sent by the
American military to the front in China, and
they begin to carve a swath through the
Chinese forces defending their nation, ending
the stalemate that had defined the Chinese
front of the war in the two years since the start
of the American invasion. Chinese resources
are strained to the breaking point by the new
American offensive using the T-51b armor,
 and the supply lines from the nations China
has annexed in East and Southeast Asia begin
to break down.
 January 22, 2077: Power Armor is used for
the first time for domestic purposes within the
United States by U.S. Army units deployed
within American cities for crowd and
quarantine control duties related to the
growing resource shortages and outbreaks of
epidemic disease. Units originally serving in
China and on the Anchorage Front Line find
themselves fighting fellow Americans at home
as the disorders grow worse across the course
of this year. Food riots increase, and many
civilians are killed in fights with the military
and police. A growing number of soldiers
desert from the American military both in
Canada and the United States. These deserters
are captured when possible by military
policemen and are sent to various military
prisons across the United States. Some of these
prisoners are later used by American military
scientists in illegal human experiments at the
Mariposa Military Base in California where
the Forced Evolutionary Virus is first tested.