When St. Ives gained its independence from the Capellan Confederation, the St. Ives Ceres Metal plant found itself with an unexpected problem.   Ceres had inticipated strong sales of its product, the VND-1R Vindicator 'Mech, to the weapons-hungry St. Ives military.   The Ceres people failed to take into account that the Vindicator is seen as a symbol of the Capellan military.   St. Ives MechWarriors assigned to Vindicators refused to operate their machines.
         Casting about for a solution, Ceres discovered the Davion field refit of the BJ-2 Blackjack.   The Blackjack demonstrated good field performance offset slightly by a problem with heat buildup.   Ceres learned the Blackjack and the Vindicator 'Mechs use the same fusion engine, the GM 180.   When testing showed that the other components used on the Vindicator could be adjusted to fit the Blackjack chassis, Ceres decided to convert the production lines.  
         The St. Ives BJ-3 Blackjack replaces the Davion Diverse Optics Sunbeam ER large lasers with Ceres Arms Smasher PPCs and retains the four medium lasers seen on the original BJ-1.   Double heat sinks handle most of the heat burden this creates.