.:The Basics of The Mobile Suits:.
The Introduction
Of all the sci-fi gadgets of the Gundam world, the coolest and flashiest are the humanoid fighting vehicles known as mobile suits. Originally developed by the Duchy of Zeon and introduced into battle in the first days of the One Year War, the mobile suit provides the upstart Zeons with a key advantage to offset the numerical superiority of the Earth Federation. In the decades following the war, the mobile suit becomes an indispensable part of the military arsenal, and wars large and small are fought and won by armies of these fantastical giant robots.
Roots of the Mobile Suit
In the year UC 0070, Zeon military researchers successfully experiment with the Minovsky effect, confirming that they can nullify radar and radio communications by scattering massive quantities of Minovsky particles. Realizing that the Minovsky effect will change the face of warfare, and anticipating an eventual confrontation with the Earth Federation, Zeon's researchers begin development of new, highly mobile combat spacecraft tailor-made for the Minovsky era. At first, Zeon's developers set out to create a conventional space fighter. Their starting point is the civilian space pod, a simple spacecraft equipped with hand-like manipulators for construction work. However, after extensive research, the researchers determine that a fully humanoid form offers greater flexibility and manueverability. Rather than being dead weight, the vehicle's limbs can be used for manuevering in accordance with the principles of action and reaction, conserving scarce propellant supplies. These movements are coordinated by an Active Mass Balance AutoControl (AMBAC) system, which handles all manuevering and balancing automatically. By UC 0073, Zeon's researchers have settled on a humanoid design they call the "mobile suit," likening it to a scaled-up space suit. Development is entrusted to the Zeonic Company, which constructs a series of prototypes. Though the first few designs are woefully underpowered, Zeonic resolves the problem by installing the recently-completed Minovsky fusion reactor in its fourth iteration. The MS-04 is swiftly remodeled into the combat-worthy MS-05, the prototype of which is completed in February, UC 0074. Thus is the mobile suit brought into the world.
Mobile Weapon Classifications
While mobile suits make up the backbone of the Gundam world's warring fleets, they aren't the only such high-tech fighting machines in the military arsenal. Collectively, weapons that use mobile suit technology, be they humanoid or no, are referred to as mobile weapons.
Towards the end of the One Year War, Zeon's researchers take the first step beyond the orthodoxy of the humanoid mobile suit. Resurrecting an alternate design concept from the early days of mobile suit development, they create the fearsome mobile armor, a non-humanoid fighting machine with greater speed and firepower than the typical mobile suit. Liberated from the size and shape restrictions of the mobile suit, Zeon's mobile armors can accommodate bulky devices like psycommu systems, I-field barriers, and Minovsky craft systems.After the One Year War, mobile suit designers set out to create vehicles that can switch between mobile suit and mobile armor forms; in the former mode, they are versatile and manueverable, while the latter mode provides power and speed. Depending on its size and power, a transforming design of this type is described as either a variable mobile suit or a variable mobile armor. However, these designs are seldom very cost-effective. First introduced around UC 0085, they are all but extinct within five years.
The development of military mobile suit technology also yields benefits in the civilian sector. No sooner is the One Year War over than a host of scaled-down civilian mobile suits appear on the market, variously classified as petit mobile suits, middle mobile suits, junior mobile suits and mobile workers. These miniature mobile suits are used for tasks like construction, maintenance and salvage, just like the space pods that inspired the military mobile suit.
Mobile Suit Construction
The core of the mobile suit is a powerful yet compact fusion reactor, typically located in its torso. In addition to providing energy for propulsion and beam weapons, the reactor generates electricity and powers the array of actuators and joints that allows the mobile suit to move its limbs. The first Zeon mobile suits use a cable-transmitted fluid pulse system to relay motive power from the reactor to the joints, while the Earth Federation equips its mobile suits with I-field-based field motors, to no particular advantage. Towards the end of the One Year War, the Federation also develops a magnet coating process which improves the mobile suit's response time by reducing friction at its joints; this process is applied to Amuro Ray's RX-78-2 Gundam, and is later used to speed the transformation of variable mobile suits. The first mobile suits are constructed along fairly conventional lines. Zeon's mobile suits use a monocoque construction, in which a rigid outer shell is packed with actuators, power systems, avionics, propellant tanks, and other vital systems. The Earth Federation opts for a semi-monocoque construction based on an internal framework, to which individual armor plates are attached. But in the last months of the One Year War, the introduction of mobile suits equipped with beam weapons renders these distinctions moot. Even the most heavily armored mobile suit is helpless against the devastating power of a beam rifle - the only defense is not to get hit, making agility and manueverability the top priority for post-war mobile suit designers. With this in mind, the engineers of the Earth Federation's elite Titans force decide to base their mobile suits on the movable frame, a fully-articulated skeleton with armor attached only to the most vital areas. In UC 0087, the Titans complete the RX-178 Gundam Mark II, which serves as a testbed for the concept; within a couple of years, the movable frame has become a standard element of mobile suit design. Another new feature of post-war mobile suits is the binder, a movable attachment that can contain thrusters, maneuvering verniers, propellant, weapons and armor. Under the control of the mobile suit's AMBAC system, these binders can be used like an extra set of limbs to adjust the mobile suit's position. The first mobile suits to sport binders are produced as part of the Gundam Development Project in UC 0083.
Armor Materials
Of course, the combat-worthy mobile suit must be outfitted with armor, however feeble it may be against beam weapons. During the One Year War, super high tensile steel and titanium are the typical armor materials, with stronger titanium composites introduced in the following years. The Earth Federation at first plans to armor its mobile suits with a vastly stronger allow called Luna Titanium, developed at its Luna Two base; originally developed for use in reactor cores, this super-alloy is resilient enough to deflect a 120mm shell from a Zaku machine gun. However, the cost and effort of producing this material make it impractical for mass-produced mobile suits. After the end of the war, the quest for the ultimate armor continues. Both Federation researchers and their former Zeon adversaries develop new versions of the Luna Titanium alloy, now known as Gundarium after the mobile suit which first demonstrated its miraculous durability. In September, UC 0083, renegade Zeons holed up in the asteroid Axis produce a lighter, stronger form called Gundarium Gamma. The details of Gundarium Gamma's composition are relayed to the rebellious AEUG, which uses the material in its own mobile suits, and in the following years new forms of Gundarium become increasingly popular as mobile suit armor materials.
Sensor Systems
A mobile suit is controlled by a human pilot, assisted by powerful computers that automate most of the details of the mobile suit's movement. Though the mobile suit's cockpit is usually located in its chest, the cockpit display is set up to present the point of view of the mobile suit's head. Thanks to the widespread use of Minovsky particles, radar is virtually useless in combat, and infra-red sensors are sufficient only to indicate the whereabouts of large heat sources, forcing the pilot is forced to rely on visual sensors. The images shown on the cockpit displays are extensively enhanced by the mobile suit's computer, and when a mobile suit or other vessel can be positivly identified, crisp computer graphics are substituted for low-quality visuals.
Since mobile suits are reliant on visual sensors, it's possible to fool them with simple decoys. An inflatable dummy balloon will often suffice to distract or confuse an enemy pilot, and even dummy ships are sometimes used to intimidate a distant fleet. After all, if the mobile suit's computer thinks it's identified an enemy unit, it'll substitute a computer graphic and the pilot will be none the wiser!
While mobile suits are studded with backup cameras and sub-sensors, the main camera is usually located in the head. Zeon's first mobile suits use a distinctive track-mounted movable camera called a mono-eye for this purpose. Earth Federation mobile suits typically use either a single large mono sensor, or a dual sensor that resembles a pair of human eyes. The latter option is also favored by the mobile suit designers of the Crossbone Vanguard and the Zanscare Empire.