In the early 1970s, the Cuban Armored Divisions were equipped with two MBTs: the tried and true M6 Ardent, and the advanced M9 Orion. The Orion, while very potent by the late 1970s, the Armored Board wanted to replace the M6, which had been serving the Cuban Army with distinction since the late 1940s. Even though the M6s in service had been modernized, the Cuban Army wanted a tank for the new age. So, in 1978, Havana Defense Industries, the main weapons developer in Cuba, began working on the new tank, called Project Scorpion. The HDI design would be compared heavily to the Paternian M5-series of heavy MBT, which was widely considered in Western circles as a very formidable tank. Army Ordnance wanted the new tank to be equal to or better than the Victoria. While the "better" part may not have been done, the result was very much an equal. The tank was also the test bed for the experimental Archangel Program, which was designed at making the best armor possible. It is comparable to the Chobham program done by the British in real life. The final drawings were finished in 1980, and the first prototypes were made in early 1982. Engineers worked furiously to work out the bugs to make the comparison due date of September 1983. The tank mounted a powerful new 120mm M3 cannon, which was an improvement over the still-potent but older M2 120mm cannon. By December of the same year, the XM97E4 was demonstrated in front of the top brass. The tank performed very well in comparative tests against the Victoria, being shown as an equal. On August 3rd,1984, the first 20 M97 tanks were delivered to 2nd Battalion, 1st Armored, christened as Scorpion. The Scorpion would live a very long service life, eventually being replaced by the Paternian-made Victoria II, in UDC service as M28 Basilisk.