Project HAYABUSA

Project: HAYABUSA was a United Nations Space Command project similar to Project: MJOLNIR.

While it had different aims than Project: MJONLIR, both programs resulted in powered battle armor. HAYABUSA's project was to develop a self-contained power armor, and the project eventually culminated in the development of the Hayabusa Armor, which was developed by RKD on Earth in 2536 and apparently accepted by the UNSC Ordinance Committee.

The Hayabusa Armor's advanced materials decreased its weight by one-third, and aesthetically appeared to be Japanese in design, with a samurai-like helmet and spiked shoulder pauldrons (commonly referred to as 'Sode' for the shoulder armor, and 'Kabuto' for the helmet in more correct terminology for Japanese armor of the era). The most likely reason for the aesthetic features of the armor might be to inspire fear into enemy soldiers. It was available for use by the SPARTAN-II supersoldiers, although its field deployment appeared to be limited.

Trivia

 * The Hayabusa Armor is available as an Armor Permutation for Halo 3. Its helmet is unlocked by finding all thirteen skulls, the chest by finding 5 skulls, and the shoulders by finding 9 skulls.
 * Project: "HAYABUSA" appears to be a reference to Ryu Hayabusa, a powerful Japanese ninja with a similar appearance to the Hayabusa Armor, who is featured in video game designer Tecmo's Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden fighting action series. However, there are several things with the name Hayabusa. The reason for the reference may be because a Spartan from the Halo Universe made an appearance in the Dead or Alive 4 game, and the armor was created as a reciprocal gesture to Tecmo.
 * Hayabusa is Japanese for "peregrine falcon", and is also the name for an unmanned space mission conducted by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency set to return to Earth in 2010.
 * The Hayabusa armor was a rare sight in Halo 3 matchmaking until the IWHBYD Skull location was posted on the internet.