ODST armor

Overview
The ODST Body Suit, although similar to standard Marine armor, is a specially-designed suit. The suit itself is composed of a helmet, body armor, boots and gloves. They have refrigeration and heating units that mask infrared signatures. The body armor, boots and gloves are fully encased and air tight, making them capable of use in a vacuum for about fifteen minutes with added oxygen units. The integrated helmet has encrypted communications gear, a Heads-Up Display, and thermal and motion detectors.

History
The ODST Body Suit was probably in use since 2500. It is known SPARTAN-IIs used the Body Suit before they got their MJOLNIR Armor The ODST Armor has come in several designs. The current ODST Armor is an offshoot of the MJOLNIR program, using CTC’s and HUD Communications Systems from the MJOLONIR program to create a more effective armor.

Appearance
The helmet's appearance is much like that of the MJOLNIR armor, but has a “V” shaped visor that is blue and is black in color. The suit itself is black around the torso with a black and grey camouflage pattern around the legs. The boots and gloves are black also. There are a total of six pouches on the waist, with four smaller pouches on the chest and two holster-style pouches on each side of the hip. The back piece is shaped like a small backpack which carries an oxygen supply for fifteen minutes. Below the backpack, there is a sheath that can hold a Combat Knife.

Advantages
The Body Suit is light weight and offers protection in hard vacuum. It supplies armor protection for rounds five millimeters and smaller, and contains a communications suite. Along with the protection and communications gear, the Body Suit provides increased agility and maneuverability not afforded by standard UNSC Marine Armor.

Disadvantages
Unfortunately, the suits are uncomfortable over prolonged periods of time and tricky to repair in the field. Also it’s ineffective in desert and an arctic environment due to the fact that black is very visible in those climates. It is more suited for nighttime, urban, forest, and space operations. Also, its disability to protect against rounds larger than five millimeters puts it at a serious disadvantage to weapons used by the Rebels and the Covenant

MJLONIR ‘ODST’ Variant
The MJLONIR ‘ODST’ Variant is most likely used by the SPARTANS for operations involving Orbital Drops. The Helmet for this variant is unlocked by the Spartan Graduate Achievement.

Trivia

 * A proposed replacement for the Body Suit was the SPI Armor used by the Spartan-III's