Raiden battle armor is a medium-weight Combine design based on captured Clan battle armor.
         The stunning success of the Raiden, as well as the other designs produced by the Draconis Combine's BattleArmor programs, can be traced directly to the supreme overconfidence of Clan Smoke Jaguar. When the Jaguars' Mistweavers Galaxy arrived over Wolcott and Galaxy Commander Deitr Osis issued the batchall for the planet, Hohiro Kurita answered the challenge and informed the Smoke Jaguars' commander of the terms for the battle. If the Jaguars won, Wolcott would be thiers. If the Combine won, the Jaguars would surrender four OmniMechs and two dozen suits of Elemental armor to the Combine forces, as well as a promise to never attack Wolcott again.
         As expected, Osis initially balked at this offer. Hohiro responded by pointing out that the odds of winning were strongly favored by the Smoke Jaguars, as he only had green troops with which to defend the planet. Stung by Hohiro's subtle implication that the Smoke Jaguar commander feared to fight, Osis agreed to the terms and personally led his invasion force down to the planet. Unknown to Osis, Kurita had made careful preperations against the Clan foe. The supposedly green "Yuutsu" regiments posted on Wolcott were actually the Genyosha, ranked among the most elite forces available to the Dragon. The prowess of the Genyosha, combined with significant terrain advantages offered by the wooded marshes of the planet, resulted in victory for the Combine.
         The acquisition of so many Elemental suits in pristine condition gave the Combine a tremendous edge in BattleArmor development, which it used to great effect when designing the Raiden and two other BattleArmor variants (the light Kage and the heavy [assault] Kanazuchi). The Raiden battlesuit represents the DCMS's attempt to duplicate Clan BattleArmor by reverse-engineering captured Clan Elemental armor. Although the Federated Commonwealth won the race to be the first Inner Sphere power with its own BattleArmor designs, the Raiden's performance is noticeably superior to that of comparable old Commonwealth designs.

         The first Raiden battle suit was presented to the Coordinator in June of 3052. It displayed adequate speed and included jump capability, features that early FedCom battlesuits lacked. Perhaps more important, Raiden-equipped warriors could withstand medium laser fire and some missile strikes, demonstrating far better armor protection than the Infiltrator and Sloth prototypes. Initially, the Raiden incorporated a small laser in the right arm and a single-shot SRM launcher on the left torso. Despite these capabilities, the suit did not satisfy the Coordinator, who directed DCMS designers to modify the Raiden so that it could protect a trooper against a larger laser hit.
         Nine months later the modified Raiden was ready. Without the SRM launcher - which tended to unbalance the suit - the new prototype mounted enough armor to withstand the full force of a large laser hit and still move at reasonable speed. The research director, fully trusting in his creation but lacking the strength or training to properly control the suit, dutifuly obeyed the Coordinator and personally conducted the new prototype's testing. It is a testiment to the quality of his work that the 70-year old scientist suffered only five broken bones and a month in the hospital after a direct hit from a BattleMech's large laser.

         The Raiden BattleArmor has since served with distinction throughout every war the old Draconis Combine has been involved in during the last few decades. They are a common sight throughout old Combine space, and can be seen in surrounding areas as well.