Capitalizing on the popularity of the Hammerfist heavy gauss rifles throughout the Lyran Commonwealth, Defiance Industries designed the Despayre as a heavy assault machine for Lyran heavy companies.

Few heavy mechs can match the Despayre for sheer offensive firepower, which consists of a heavy gauss rifle, a MRM rack, and 4 ER medium lasers.
The placement of the heavy gauss posed many problems for the enginners in the beginning, as the light engine also took up a lot of space in the mech. Eventually they compromised by shifting part of the heavy gauss into the center torso.
The MRM rack was produced under license from Shigunga. While the inherent inaccuracy of the MR racks is a problem, it does fit in well with the Lyran preference for brute force over finesse.
The four ER medium lasers were placed in the arms, and when it was seen that pilots loved to use the hands on the Despayre to punch opponents, special shock absorbers were installed to prevent excessive jarring of the laser optics.

One popular variant replaces the MRM rack with an LRM rack for longer ranged firepower and accuracy.

Despayres have been deployed mainly amongst rebuilding Lyran and Royal Guard units. Archon Peter Steiner has placed the reconstruction of these regiments as top priority, and they have been absorbing the bulk of the Lyran Commonwealth's production for the past three years, and are back to their full strength.