Again, do you have a source for that?
Because Sarna is great in a lot of ways, but also has a lot of unsupported and incorrect information. To be fair, I think there's a lot of sources that do state or at least imply the same, that the loot from the 3050 Somerset Striker's action is what started the FedSuns PA/BA programs.
It's just that there are several problems with that narrative.
For one, does that make sense?
I don't know when in 3050 that combat action took place, but even assuming it was January 1st, that means that people had to gather the loot, get off planet, travel multiple jumps to a research centre, cautiously disassemble the tech, study and reverse-engineer it, invent multiple new forms of technology, create and test new designs, settle on them, and create at least one factory capable of mass manufacturing them.
All in the space of a single year, at Battletech speeds.
That's pretty wild, even ignoring the differences between the Elemental and the Sloth (weight, cockpit, Quad, increased ground speed, no jump jets). It would also further increase my disbelief at the ridiculously long time it took the IS to get Clan tech, if they could do this so fast.
More importantly, the source books of the time do not agree with this narrative, making it at best a retcon.
Here I will copy over the text from a different site, where I checked and quoted from sourcebooks. Apologies if it comes accross as somewhat exasperated or hostile, as it is from a debate;
As per MUL, Inner Sphere Standard and Gray Death varieties are introduced 3052, Sloth and Infiltrator Mk I 'Waddle' are introduced 3050. Somerset Strikers have their first operation in 3050, with their famous salvage described in Sarna as "providing solutions to overcome development problems plaguing the Bushwacker BattleMech, as well as the Infiltrator and Sloth battle armor programs."
The introduction of battlearmour in Lostech provides the quotes - from the Infiltrator Mk I and Sloth, respectively - "This remarkable design was based on technology acquired during operations by the First Somerset Strikers, as well as prototype battle-armour research being conducted at the NAIS. Although much of the technology required to construct the light reconnaissance unit had existed for some time prior to its development, it took the Clan invasion to make tactical planners appreciate the advantages of fielding such complicated and well-integrated systems in such a small package."
and
"The technical data on the Toad battle armour also helped us surmount a technological barrier in our IFR-X and SLH-X battlesuit programs. The myomers we used to drive the legs were too short to generate the power necessary for the suits to maneuver effectively on the battlefield. As you know, the longer the myomer, the greater its contraction when exposed to an electrical current. A review of the Clan technical data showed that the Clan designers solved this problem by giving their myomers a pseudolength twice their actual length."
Sooo... The production design came out the same year as the Somerset raid, before the Standard and Gray Death designs; they were expressly described as consisting of almost entirely already-existing technology - in the design that used Stealth Armour at all, let alone on the infantry-scale; were noted to be based on designs created by NAIS existing before they received the Clan tech; the only improvement noted as based on study of Clan tech was myomer design used to improve speed; the designs, unlike the later IS Standard and Gray Death and unlike the Elemental, do not encase the wearer like an armour suit but are built around a cockpit.
TLDR; Getting Clan salvage to look at helped improve the designs in small ways, but neither the Infiltrator I nor Sloth were based on it. They're far too different and came out far too early for that to be the case.
