M77A-X Jaguar Armoured Personnel Carrier

Among the many prototypes that Project EXCALIBUR produced, the majority were not adopted for one reason or another. The M13-X Lynx Light Reconnaissance Vehicle was shelved for budgetary reasons, while the development of the XAD82-CAS Petrel Gunship was flawed from the beginning. What the greatest chance of success was the M77A-X Jaguar APC, developed for theatres of combat where the common but exposed M12 Warthog LRV variants were utterly ineffective. It also pioneered the use of the "Ancile" armour system, developed to be effective against plasma weaponry.

History
Unfortunately,

The technological inferiority of the UNSC, compared to the Covenant, has always been humanities greatest weakness. Even with superior numbers and tactics, human fleets have invariably been pummeled with plasma and laser fire, their own weapons rendered horribly ineffective. On the ground, however, it was a different story - the superior training and resolve of the UNSC Marine Corps, Army and Air Force have given the UNSC time to evacuate millions, and though the orbital superiority invariably means that the colonies fell, the ground forces made the enemy fight for it with every resource at their disposal.

even the ground forces are almost obsolete when compared to their Covenant counterparts. Most infantry wear only the most rudimentary anti-DEW protection gear, and then only recently. Our own vehicles have proven horribly vulnerable to plasma strikes, with few materials

Quotes

 * "I heard a guy saw one of these on a highway get up and walk away. He was obviously drunk."


 * "The Jaguars could take a pounding. Plasma rifles? Barely left a scratch. Needlers just bounced right off. The enemy would need a Foxtrot Romeo Golf to even make a dent. Why don't we have these?"
 * "Yeah, the loss of Reach was a hard hit. But an ODST buddy told me his platoon took the prototypes for a...spin before they evacced. And he was impressed. They guy's a Helljumper, and he was impressed."
 * "The only real action any of them saw was at Minorca, and that was a fluke."