Ursal Defense Industries

The small size of the Republic's peacetime armed forces ensured that there was no megalithic military-industrial complex made up of corporations whose primary outputs were composed of military hardware and equipment. Instead, many specialized subsidiaries of larger manufacturers or software companies vied for Army and Navy contracts. Ursal Defense Industries, known more commonly as Ursal Defense, or UDI, was amongst those firms.

Originally an arm of Orvieto Heavy Industries, its parent firm would sell the company off in the early 31130's due to a slump in military spending. The company had carved out a niche in the small arms and light utility vehicles segments of the industry, where margins were low and competition stiff, and the board at OHI struggled to see a path to long term profitability.

A private equity firm would acquire the flagging company for a fraction of the price to earnings ratio seen in most other acquisitions. Many analysts believed that UDI would be stripped clean, but instead, it received a huge infusion of capital from its new owners. With the war chest necessary to lay a foundation for future growth, Ursal Defense retooled a number of its more inefficient facilities, and sank large sums of money into research and development.

The bet would pay off with the creation of UDI's line of advanced power armor. Even before the arrival of the Ascomanni, the War Council had approached the Senate to approve additional funding to support development efforts. Once the war began, Ursal accelerated its efforts, culminating with the Mark Four armor set.

Initial field testing proved promising. While expensive, these suits provided full protection from hostile planetary environments and enhanced survivability on the battlefield, especially in light of the alien invaders' significant physical advantages over the average Umbrian.

An order was placed for over a million sets of the Mark Fours. UDI struggled with the jump to full-scale production, and reports of poor quality and mechanical defects plagued the initial sets received by frontline units. The War Council would dispatch technical advisers, who worked with the company's design team to incorporate feedback from the front, and within a few months most of the problems had been ironed out.

As the end product improved, so did its impression on the soldiers in the Frontier. The sight of heavily armed and armored Umbrians fighting back against the Ascomanni menace began to appear regularly in news broadcasts, capturing the public's imagination. Triumvir Publius Decius personally advocated for providing a set to every soldier, arguing that no expense could be too great to protect Umbria's brave sons and daughters.

Ursal began to plan for expanding its facilities, and new contracts were promised; so long as UDI was capable of meeting demand. Seeing an unprecedented opportunity. Ursal would launch the most successful IPO in 31153, and began expanding at breakneck speeds. The success of its power armor line would allow it to expand its presence in other areas, and the company's logo began to appear on a growing list of important equipment.

Now, Ursal Defense has come full circle. Its ever-expanding footprint of manufacturing facilities churn out tons of war materiel, and it even competes with OHI, its previous owner, for contracts on tanks and other heavy equipment.

For the Republic at large, it couldn't come at a better time, as every advantage will be necessary to stop the Ascomanni assault.