The SPARTAN-II Class III Program (also called Project ARES or Ares Detachment) was a spinoff project of the SPARTAN-II Program, designed to produce genetically and cybernetically enhanced Spartan-grade supersoldiers for the UNSC. Based off of the Class I Project by Halsey and headed by Colonel Griffin Standoff, the program was started in 2540 after all recruits had been successfully secured and moved to secret training grounds in catacombs underneath Fort Hamill on Tantalus, to be trained by Class I SPARTAN-II and Leonidan operative Laszlo Katona.