Project ION BLAST was a failed human attempt at creating a "plasma laser" weapon, that focused plasma similarly to the the process used in the Particle Beam Rifle. The idea was that the dense, uncontained plasma, moving at high speed, would burn through armor more effectively than less dense, but contained plasma utilized in Covenant weapons. Unfortunately, the Project found that either the weapon drained too much battery power to be feasible, or not enough plasma was focused on the target to be useful. However, Tiers 3 and 4 saw success as Anti Shield weapons. There were 5 tiers to Project ION BLAST: