RX-75-4 Guntank

The RX-75-4 Guntank is a mobile suit in the series Mobile Suit Gundam.

Technology & Combat Characteristics
The RX-75-4 Guntank was the first prototype Earth Federation mobile suit developed by Project V. However, the Guntank was hardly a mobile suit at all. The Guntank had the torso and arms of a mobile suit, but possessed caterpillar treads for legs. It also lacked any sort of hands and had a canopy-style cockpit on the head, along with the cockpit in the torso. Like all "V Project" mobile suits, the Guntank used the Core Block System.

The main weapons of the Guntank are twin 180mm recoil-less cannons, which were effective at both long and medium ranges. The Guntank's two arms ended in four-barrel missile launchers instead of hands. These weapons provided good cover fire against enemy tanks and aircraft, but were less effective against enemy mobile suits.

The major flaw in the Guntank is its inability to turn the torso. This means the cannons can't aim horizontally and is difficult to aim the cannons at moving targets, as the Guntank must reposition itself. Another major flaw was that its design was primarily aimed towards ground combat, and suffered heavily in space due to poor maneuverability.

Armaments

 * 180mm Low-Recoil Cannon
 * Two 180mm Cannons are equipped on the shoulders of the Guntank. The cannons were used for long range artillery and sniping. They have a firing distance of 260km, which exceeds visual range.


 * 4-tube 40mm Bop Missile Launcher
 * Two 4-tube 40mm Bop Missile Launchers are mounted in the Guntank's manipulators with an ammunition feed system. They fire small anti-aircraft missiles with a range of 20km. As the Guntank is not equipped with any close range weapon, the Missile Launchers are used as the primary defense weapon.

Special Equipment & Features

 * Core Block System
 * The prototype mobile suits produced by the Earth Federation Forces' Operation V, are equipped with a central block which houses the mobile suit's cockpit, control systems and main power source. This core block can eject in case of emergency and unfold into a small Core Fighter.

History
The Guntank was developed when the first rumors of the Principality of Zeon's mobile suits reached the Federation. The Guntank was designed as an anti-mobile suit and artillery mobile suit. Although its performance in this role fell below expectations, it did pack a heavy punch.

At the attack on Side 7, only one of the RX-75-4 Guntank units survived the attack. The last prototype made its way to the Pegasus-class assault cruiser White Base. The Guntank design fought alongside the RX-77-2 Guncannon and the RX-78-2 Gundam, but it was easily outclassed by them. However, after the death of the Guntank's pilot Ryu Jose, the mobile suit was upgraded to be used by a single pilot in the canopy-style cockpit. The RX-75-4 Guntank was finally decommissioned at the Federation's General Headquarters at Jaburo, South America in November UC 0079.

However, despite being decommissioned, the Guntank would still find use by the White Base team. While leaving earth's atmosphere, the White Base came under attack by Dimitri in the MA-04X Zakrello mobile armor. Hayato Kobayashi launched in the Guntank to intercept, but was clearly outmatched by the Zakrello's superior speed and power. However, the near-suicidal plan bought Amuro enough time to deploy in the Gundam to defeat Dimitri.

Variants

 * RX-75 Guntank Mass Production Type
 * RX-75 Berge Guntank
 * RMV-1 Guntank II
 * RTX-440 Ground Assault Type Guntank
 * RMV-3M Local Control Type Guntank
 * Guntank Psycommu Type
 * First appeared in parody Mobile Suit Gundam-san, this Guntank variant stems from Hayato Kobayashi's frustation of using Guntank in space and desire for something more flashy than Amuro Ray's RX-78-2 Gundam. His Guntank suddenly gains the ability to use the Psycommu System. Unfortunately for Hayato, it is just dream sequence. Its Gundam War card reflects this perfectly, this card almost looks like it has [Psycommu(2)] ability.

Notes & Trivia

 * In the original Mobile Suit Gundam TV anime, the RX-75-4 Guntank was not decommissioned at Jaburo but continued service on board the White Base until it was destroyed at the Zeon space fortress A Baoa Qu.
 * A number of representations of the Guntank in other media, usually video games, depict the unit as capable of turning its upper body to a limited degree and increasing its range of fire.