M52B body armor

The M52B Body Armor is an armored protective vest worn by members of the UNSC Marine Corps. It is a key component of the Marine Corps Battle Dress Uniform. It is usually worn with the CH252 Helmet for greater ballistic protection. Nicknames for the body armor include BA, BO, Gear, and Shell.

Description
The M52B body armor consists of 14.5 lb (6.58 kg) of olive-green armor plating over combat fatigues. The body armor is worn like a vest over the torso, and seemingly consists of two parts. A number of ammunition pockets, holsters, and other features can be attached to the armor.

The M52B armor is extremely resilient against ballistic weaponry, though it can easily be damaged by plasma weaponry. The armor consists of several layers, some of which include a ballistic shock-absorbing gel layer and a heat reduction gel layer to help reduce velocity and felt shock from ballistics, shrapnel, and explosives as well as reducing the burn caused by plasma once it reaches flesh. This heat reduction layer also reduces the chance of the plasma penetrating by counter-acting and dissipating the heat, effectively disarming the blast. While this armor protects the wearer from harm caused by weaponry it also has temperature-regulation units integrated into it to keep the wearer at optimum performance while eliminating the need to change depending on the environment. This also reduces the enemies ability to track soldiers via thermal energy as it is mostly hidden beneath this armor.

The armor used in training officer cadets at the Corbulo Academy of Military Science appeared to be a smaller, lighter version of the standard M52B armor and bore the Academy's emblem on the chest plate. It shared the shoulder pauldrons of the full-sized model.

Service history
The earliest known use of the M52B armor was during the Harvest Campaign in 2531, though its service was seemingly very limited. Marine personnel were equipped with the M52B body armor during the Battle of Kholo in 2539, during the Battle of Algolis, which occurred at an unknown point in the war, and during an inspection of the prison barge Mona Lisa in October 2552. However, the armor is not known to have seen widespread use until the Battle of Earth, which began on October 20, 2552.

Prior to the adoption of the M52B, a different body armor system was used with the UNSC Marine Corps BDU during the Insurrection and the early years of the Human-Covenant War ; by the summer of 2552, this system had been replaced - at least on the planet Reach - by another body armor model. It is likely that Marine forces on Earth had already been outfitted with the M52B armor by this time, as it was ubiquitous during the Battle of Earth, which began two months after the Fall of Reach.

List of appearances

 * Halo 2
 * Halo 3
 * Halo 3: ODST
 * Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
 * The Mona Lisa
 * The Return motion comic
 * Halo: Uprising
 * Halo Legends
 * Origins
 * Prototype
 * Halo: Combat
 * Halo: Arms Race
 * Halo: Combat
 * Halo: Last One Standing