Vault-Tec Corporation

Vault-Tec is the corporation that was contracted by the United States Government before The Great War to design and produce the Vault system, dubbed Project Safehouse. Its corporate headquarters were located in downtown Washington, DC.

The first demonstration Vault was constructed beneath Los Angeles. Its design deviated from the regular Vault design (for example, it had one storeroom for both arms and equipment, instead of separate storerooms or a much larger control room without a security outpost). After initial trials, construction of 122 vaults were put in motion.

Societal Preservation Program
However, the Vaults weren't intended for saving the citizens of the United States. With a population of almost 400 million by 2077, the U.S. would need over 400,000 Vaults, and Vault-Tec was commissioned to build only 122 such Vaults. The real reason for these Vaults was to study pre-selected segments of the population to see how they react to the stresses of isolationism and how successfully they re-colonize after the Vault opens.

Other divisions
The nuclear war shelters weren't its only area of work, as Vault-Tec released several other handbooks (such as "Coping with Mr. Virus" or "How to Cook a Rat") concerning survival during and after other disasters, with the Vault Dweller's Survival Guide being only one of many.

Future-Tec, a division of Vault-Tec, developed the G.E.C.K., the Garden of Eden Creation Kit for use by vault residents.

History
Like many major military contractors, as Vault-Tec grew in finances and responsibility, it began to develop highly experimental and secure technologies. In time, Vault-Tec was so thoroughly integrated with top-secret military research, it was practically a division of the U.S. government … almost. The company still retained some elements of privatization. So the principals of Vault-Tec - executives, scientists, and so on - had to be aware of the true function of the Vaults, and they had access to the technology. They were the developers. Regardless of the U.S. government's directives, Vault-Tec was not going to submit to a lottery and live underground with a bunch of human cattle in facilities that were intentionally defective. Thus Vault-Tec created their own facilities, removed from the larger Vault network - and kept secret from the U.S. government.

Vault-Tec didn't stop there. These secret, private installations were used to research the latest vault mechanisms as well as technologies that would benefit mankind in a post-nuclear environment. This included some extensive research with a "forced evolution virus" (FEV) which, unlike the government-controlled research at Vault 87, was kept secret from the government.

Inconsistencies

 * The company is sometimes referenced as Vault-Tek or even Vaultex.

Appearances in games
Vault-Tec Vaults and other technology appear in all Fallout games.

Krypt-Tech Vault-Tec