The practice of upgrading and re-using the older designs is a staple of military history. It would absolutely fit into the image of a struggling pre-War US on 2070-ies, engaged in total war with another superpower. The T-45 was developed as a stop-gap, 'good enough' solution that was far from ideal. Then, after the power armor concept proved itself viable and the suits were in full-scale production for several years, the new T-51 design came about, superior in every way and with all the major kinks worked out. But it took 7 years between the first PA combat deployment and a next generation prototype. In the meantime, T-45 would be iterated upon, first with minor tweaks marked as 'b' to 'f' versions, a T-47 offshoot with a limited on-board medical AI, and later a major overhaul that would incorporate some of the technologies developed in the ongoing research. The nomenclature being out of order is easy to explain - the T-60 project would come to exist years after T-51 was officially signed and approved (perhaps somewhere in 2074), even if in the end both suits began deployment at the same time (Anchorage reclamation).
The T-60 was likely produced not just as a complete unit, but also as a parts kit intended to be applied to the hundreds of thousands of T-45's already built to bring them up to a new standard. Washington Brotherhood has stumbled upon many hundreds of T-45's under Pentagon (there seems to be a glut of the suits in the region in general if the traders are all selling them, making the ludicrous 'Power Armor Training required' even dumber) and has likely recovered the means and know-how to produce the kits (or even just the kits themselves) between the events of F3 and F4. It's still mostly a first-gen tech, all heavy steel and sharp angles, still not quite a match for T-51, X-01 or Hellfire, but is relatively easy to maintain and plentiful in supply, allowing them to keep it as standard uniform. It doesn't make any sense for it to be anything else.
Yup. T-60 has been confirmed to be a stop-gap upgrade for the T-45 suits. As a means to keep up with demand for Power Armor. T-51 is still the goat of pre-war suits, but was becoming to expensive to build and repair over time. T-60 takes everything they learned from T-51, and applied it as a upgrade kit for T-45 whilst stripping the time and recources it would take to make these compared to T-51.
After installing this, noticed I could no longer apply rank or decal markings to T60 or T51 power armour. Using this with BPAO (which requires PAMAP and CPAO)
No offense to the mod maker, but the lore explicitly states that T-51 armor was rare after the T-60 became standard. That explains why the T-51 parts are harder to find. I had also, frankly, sold a few tons worth of full T-51s by the time I finally modded my X-01 from 35 Court to full power, and I made a 'gallery' with one of each PA set. Then again, I did max out my Intelligence and Luck first.
The T-51 was to expansive to produce, so they made the T-60. The T-51 is still better, it was one of the many bethesda mistakes. Fallout 76 shows this even more.
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The practice of upgrading and re-using the older designs is a staple of military history. It would absolutely fit into the image of a struggling pre-War US on 2070-ies, engaged in total war with another superpower. The T-45 was developed as a stop-gap, 'good enough' solution that was far from ideal. Then, after the power armor concept proved itself viable and the suits were in full-scale production for several years, the new T-51 design came about, superior in every way and with all the major kinks worked out. But it took 7 years between the first PA combat deployment and a next generation prototype. In the meantime, T-45 would be iterated upon, first with minor tweaks marked as 'b' to 'f' versions, a T-47 offshoot with a limited on-board medical AI, and later a major overhaul that would incorporate some of the technologies developed in the ongoing research. The nomenclature being out of order is easy to explain - the T-60 project would come to exist years after T-51 was officially signed and approved (perhaps somewhere in 2074), even if in the end both suits began deployment at the same time (Anchorage reclamation).
The T-60 was likely produced not just as a complete unit, but also as a parts kit intended to be applied to the hundreds of thousands of T-45's already built to bring them up to a new standard. Washington Brotherhood has stumbled upon many hundreds of T-45's under Pentagon (there seems to be a glut of the suits in the region in general if the traders are all selling them, making the ludicrous 'Power Armor Training required' even dumber) and has likely recovered the means and know-how to produce the kits (or even just the kits themselves) between the events of F3 and F4. It's still mostly a first-gen tech, all heavy steel and sharp angles, still not quite a match for T-51, X-01 or Hellfire, but is relatively easy to maintain and plentiful in supply, allowing them to keep it as standard uniform. It doesn't make any sense for it to be anything else.