The Cherub Design Project actually called for designing two versions of the same mech, which was something Ves had never done before.
He learned from his project management lessons that this was not an unusual approach in larger design teams or mech companies.
Even if he limited the project to a single version, the Hegemony would definitely knock on his doors and request a variant that was optimized for a different environment.
Instead of going through all of that trouble, the Design Department might as well work on a base model and a variant concurrently so that it could deliver both mech designs to the client at once.
"What budget do you have in mind for the Cherub?" Ves asked.
"Hmm. I'm aiming for a maximum production cost of 50 million hex credits for the landbound version and up to 55 million hex credits for the spaceborn version."