Okay, the progression of how the Supersoldats look and function are a bit confusing to me.

So the 1946 ones look pretty "normal" for their era. They very clearly are still WIP, and still have much to work on.

Now you have the ones from 1960. These guys look complete. Fully armored, no longer requiring power cables to stay alive, and a stronger weapon to fight enemies. The progression from 1946 to 1960 Supersoldaten make sense to me.

Then you get 1961. Wtf happened here? These guys look like they got massively downgraded from 1960. They're not fully armored (may as well be fully uncovered on the legs too), and for some reason in the span of only a few months, their arsenal now has 3 different kinds of guns, one of them (Hammergewher) doesn't even seem "new", and looks like it was reused from the past. What happened here? 1960 Supersoldaten looks like a logical upgrade of 1946 ones, then they go all fucked in 1961.

The 1961 ones honestly look like they'd come in-between 1946 and 1960, in terms of their technological development. I understand why the 1980 ones look barely different from 20 years prior, because General Strasse died, and they didn't really know what to do with his tech, but why did they change the Supersoldat so much in the span of 1960 and 1961? They were far more complete in 1960

The idea for the 1961 Supersoldaten was to make them more mobile which involved sacrificing armor protection. I’m not sure if the 1961 Supersoldaten was made to replace the 1960 Supersoldaten or were made in tandem with them but considering the average resistance fighter doesn’t have access to anti-tank or heavy weaponry, the SS-Special Projects Division(or whatever is left of it) decided the heavy armor compromised a lot on maneuverability and the 1960 Supersoldatens were much more expensive and so the 1961 variants were not only more maneuverable but also probably a lot cheaper to produce.

Ah, that makes a lot more sense now. I forgot the rocket boosters on their back was even a thing lol. I think the only thing that trips me out is the amount of changes in such a short span of time

I was a bit disappointed with the ‘61 Model. I found they were never really as intimidating or threatening as the New Order ones. I actually never even realized they were the Uber soldier for a bit.

Plus the 1961 variant was also made to keep the American Territories in check

I think the 61 versions are meant to be downgraded or simplified for mass production. They had the prototypes in 1946, perfected it by 1960 and began full industrial scale production in 1961. This is kinda normal for a lot of things. And if you notice there’s probably at least 2 supersoldaten in every single level of new colossus whereas they were a pretty rare sight in old blood and new order.

Also they mentioned the moon base houses experimental supersoldaten and these might be the results. The experiments may not have been to make them stronger but rather how to make them cheaper so they can become a standard unit in the waffen SS.

Also the supersoldaten have been seemingly replaced in their heavy assault role by those giant robots. Not sure if that began after deathshead died or if that was the end goal all along. An army of roided up supermen in every single unit and robots acting as heavy shock troops.

As the others have said, most likely for mass production so they can be produced cheaper and faster to supplement their war marchine.

Be glad they're not producing the ubersoldaten from RtCW. That thing on its own was an absolute monster. Now imagine an army of them.

I always assumed the ones we see in '61 are less of a progression of technology so much as a regional variation, in North America they were made more for supressing rebellion and operating farther from the home front so the more cybernetics was because they were easier to upkeep than a meaty organy little nazi. The european ones were either surviving ones from the war or directly based off them
I also expect the design philosphy changing was really because the IRL game designers wanted their look to mesh with the ubersoldat and laserhund