The Field Manual: Comstar states on page 12 that the ComStar Guards and Militia were formed in 2933, initially an infantry force some eight regiments strong the Guards added 'Mech troops in the 2980s and by the 31st century the modern Com Guards were born. The manual further states the Successor States were infrmed of this development and were assured it was for defensive purposes only.
Warrior: Riposte has Akira Brahe discover ComStar having a stockpile of 'Mechs and training MechWarriors - this would appear to be something not generally known when he reveals it to Jaime Wolf, Morgen Kell and Yorinaga Kurita.
Warrior: Coupe has Primus Myndo Waterly announcing she has made an agreement to have ComStar 'Mech forces deployed at the HPG stations and specifically states they will initially be mercenaries before being slowly replaced over the next ten or twenty years by their own newly trained troops.
Putting these 3 pieces of information together I can only come up with the following as an explanation that meets the information presented in the novels with that in the source book:
1) The ComStar Guards and Militia were formed in 2933 and consisted initially of 8 infantry regiments
2) This information was provided to the Successor States
3) 'Mech troops were added in the 2980s _but importantly this wasn't conveyed to the Successor States_
If this weren't the case there would be far less surprise that ComStar had trained 'Mech forces when they were discovered (Morgan Kell could reasonably be said to not have had clearance to know the information, Yorinaga Kurita again possibly however Jaime Wolf would definitely have been able to find this out especially given he would have been looking in to ComStar security as to how to smuggle the swords on world). In addition there would be no need to ComStar to pretend they have only just trained troops when they come to deploy them.
Is this explanation I've come up with correct, is there another one or is there some other source that clarifies things?
