Earth Sphere Federation Army

The Earth Sphere Federation Army (or ESF Army) is the newly formed united planetary force of the ESF created in between season's 1 and 2 of Gundam 00 and seen in the latter as a semi-antagonist force behind the Autonomous Peace-Keeping Force, A-Laws. After the new Federation president dismantled A-Laws, all A-Laws members were integrated into the ESF Army. They played a critical role in the ELS War by joining forces with the paramilitary organization Celestial Being.

History
Formed in A.D. 2310, the Earth Sphere Federation is created as the the successor of to the United Nations. Similiarily the ESF Army is the succesor of the United Nations Forces and was created after an argeement from the then-328 member states of the Federation. Between A.D. 2310 and A.D. 2312 (pre-Break Pillar Incident) the ESF Army was often called the 'Regular Forces' due to the fact that the Autonomous Peace-Keeping Force (A-Laws) had taken over much of the ESF Army's role. When members of the Regular Forces break away and take over an Orbital Elevator it is the Regular Forces that are deployed to secure the site around the eleveator. These forces are then ordered to destroy the retreating ESF Coup d'état Forces and the forces of Katharon. Following the Break Pillar Incident the Regular Forces are merged (temporarily) with the A-Laws to boost the A-LAWS' chances of destroying the paramilitary organization Celestial Being.

Following the defeat of the A-Laws and the Innovators, the ESF Army is reformed after the immediate disbandment of the A-Laws branch. Many former A-Laws personnel are also granted amnesty by the new Federation administration and allowed to rejoin the ESF Army. The ESF Army also gained control over the Celestial Being which still contained the quantum processing unit Veda. During inspection of the area surrounding the Celestial Being as well as internal inspections, the ESF Army found the Innovators' mass production Mobile Suit GNZ-004 Gaga as well as the wreckage of GNMA-0001V Regnant, an Innovator-designed Mobile Armor. With these units and the Celestial Being in their control the ESF Army begun to upgrade their military forces.

Between A.D. 2312 and A.D. 2314 the new Federation government's pacifism policies had caused much of the Army to be dismantled. However even with such disarmament happening the ESF Army had still upgraded its forces with newer technology. The Celestial Being, now a major production facility for the ESF Army, was being protected at all times by a fleet of Baikal-class cruisers and was the site of the Federation's research into Innovators. The mothership's Innovades had also been commissioned into the ESF Army sometime between 2312 and 2314. By 2314 the Federal Army was producing newer MS and starships like the GNX-803T GN-XIV alongside vessels like the Volga- and Nile-class space battleships using technology from the Innovators and Celestial Being. The ESF Army would later deploy all forces at the "Absolute Line of Defense" with the the sole goal being to stop the Extraterrestial Living-metal Shape-shifters from getting to Earth and assimilating all of Humanity. The Celestial Being was the headquarters of the ESF Army during the ELS Conflict. Even with the power of their upgraded forces, over 70% of the ESF Army fleet had been destroyed or assimilated by the ELS by the time the conflict ended.

The ESF-Army took part in the Old Human Conflict between the Old Human Faction and the Earth Sphere Federation. It is kown that the Earth Sphere Federation Army still exists after 2364.

Organization
The ESF Army is a multi-role organization, for example there existed both seperate terrestial and space forces, however all 'branches' operated under the name "Earth Sphere Federation Army" regardless of whether they were in the terrestial forces or the space fleet. At the time of its creation the ESF Army was planned to be the only, unified peacekeeping force for the entire Earth Sphere Federation as they pushed towards creating a single, unified government and world. To this end the ESF Army operated in all areas and was initially charged with the destruction of anti-Federation elements before this task was passed onto the A-Laws. The ESF Army was headquartered within Union territory where the Chief-of-Staff presumably had his or her office. The Chief-of-Staff was responsible for reporting direcly to the Federation President, especially during times of crisis such as the ELS War. During the final battle of said-conflict the captured-Celestial Being was the headquarters and command center for the ESF Army entire fleet, who were commanded by Brigadier General Kati Mannequin, that had been deployed to defend the Earth.

Tactics
The ESF Army prided itself upon monopolising on captured GN Technology and being able to create Mobile Suits and later starships using such technology. In A.D. 2312 their mainstay Mobile Weapon was the GNX-609T GN-XIII which had a split production line between the ESF 'Regular Forces' and the A-Laws. During an operation in response to a coup d'ete by various personnel of the Regular Forces, the ESF Army opted to deploy a large-scale attack force to ambush the retreating coup and Katoran forces that were trying to escape during the Break Pillar Incident. The Regular Forces also utilized Guyana-class flight-capable land battleships in their search operations for anti-ESF encampments as well as to fight the Coup forces that had captured the Orbital Elevator. It is very possible that the Federation Army also fielded a fleet of Baikal-class cruisers alongside those operated by the A-Laws.

By A.D. 2314 the ESF Army was boosted by the additional of personnel and technologies which had been transferred from the disbanded A-Laws branch to the regular army. By this time the they now had better equipped battleships such as the Volga- and Nile-classes and the current mainstay MS of the Army was now the GNX-803T GN-XIV. Between A.D 2312 and A.D. 2314 however, much of the Army had been dismantled in accordance with the new pacifism policy of the new Federation administration although this did not later stop the ESF Army from protecting the Earth Sphere during the ELS Conflict. The ESF Army deployed True Innovator Descartes Shaman as bait in an interception mission at Mars. The mission ended with the total destruction of the ESF fleet and the loss of Shaman and his prototype Mobile Armor, the GNMA-Y0002V Gadelaza. As a last resort the ESF Army created the "Absolute Line of Defense" near the L2 region with the Celestial Being acting as the forward command center. Utilizing nearly every last vessel, Mobile Weapon and weapon they had the ESF Army was prepared to defend the Earth. The army also deployed forces near the Orbital Ring and Orbital Elevators. During this last defensive battle of the conflict, even with their numerous upgraded units, the Federation Army would suffer vast casualties, over 70% of the deploy fleet, in a valiant fight against the aliens.

Technological Development
The ESF Army monopolised upon the captured GN Tau Particle technology and further developed the GNX-Series of Mobile Suits. This research and development would later turn to producing their GN Drive[T]s and as a result GN Particle-utilizing Mobile Armor and starships like the Baikal-class cruiser, though older vessels were still in use. When the ESF Army was first created their mainstay Mobile Suit was the GNX-609T GN-XIII, which they shared production with the A-Laws. The GN-XIII was developed from the infamous GNX-603T GN-X and the less known GNX-607T GN-XII however, it can be said that the GN-XIII was a step down as it lacked the mutli-role ability that the -XII had. It is possible that the Innovators had a hand in its development and had this done to curb the development of the Federation and make them less able to rebel.

It is make quite apparent that the ESF Army has never fully had time to operate a full army composed of GN Particle-utilizing units. In A.D. 2312 most of the Federation Army's terrestial MS forces were being made up by older generation MS such as Enacts, Flags and Tieren High Mobility Type Bs. The latter notable was used to protect Federation detention centers for suspected anti-Federation rebels whilst the former two made up the backbone of the Regular Forces' aerial forces on Earth. Poor keeping of these older generation MS saw most stolen by anti-government forces. During A.D. 2312 it is possible that GN Drive[T]-equipped machines were prioritised for the A-Laws as opposed to the Regular Forces thus explaining why the Regular Forces continued to field older MS, even against Celestial Being's Gundams. Two years later when the ELS threated the Earth more older generation MS were again deployed whilst some newer upgraded variants, such as the Over Flag Astro Pack, were deployed to combat the ELS menance. Older vessels such as the Virgina- and Laohu-class vessels were also deployed at this time and it is possible at this time that these older ships were modernised with GN weaponry and technology, such as facilities to better accomodate GN Mobile Suits.

The GN-X line would then be continued by the Innovator-enhanced GNX-612T/AA Superbia GN-X which saw limited production. The Superbia GN-X was based upon the concept design of the GN-XIV that was currently being developed by the ESF Army. Whilst the Superbia GN-X is listed as a Federation forces machine it was in fact only piloted by A-Laws personnel as the Regular Forces had already been merged with the A-Laws by the time of its development and deployment. Similiarily the Federation forces also fielded the experimental GNX-704T/FS Ahead Forcing Scout Type, though it was only used once, which was an A-Laws machine as well. However data of this single deployment was then used to develop the GN Tail Booster for use on normal Ahead units which allowed them to perform long distance travel.

Whilst still under the A-Laws the Federation planned on developing a new production model of the GNX-704T Ahead for Regular Forces-use. This planned unit was the GNX-Y802T Neo-Hed, a next-generation machine developed using combat data gathered from testbed machines such as the GNX-704T/AC Sakigake and GNX-704T/SP Smultron. The developer's plan was to divide the Federation's mass production machines into two series: a new model GN-X as a lightweight Mobile Suit and the Neo-Hed as a heavyweight operations Mobile Suit. However this plan fell through when the scandalous actions of the A-Laws were revealed to the world and the Federation was forced to cancel development of the Neo-Hed. The Ahead was probably mothballed following the revelation as being exclusively an A-Laws machine would make it hard to field with some sort of public backlash, which the new government was keen to keep away from.

Subsequently the new administration, coming in on the aftermath of the revelation of the true extent of A-Laws' operations, choose to follow policies that promoted peace and unification. Part of the new government's pacifist policies was partial or full disarmament of the ESF Army although they may have been lax as the the ESF Army continued upgrading their forces with new technologies found aboard the captured-Celestial Being mothership formerly controlled by the Innovators. However the pacifist policies did keep the development of the next-generation GNX-803T GN-XIV, whose testing was kept strictly to space and lunar sites, from the public domain at least until they began rolling out. By A.D. 2314 the ESF Army had begun deploying the GN-XIV largely in space and it is currently unknown if the GN-XIV was also deployed on Earth.

Also as the Federation became aware of True Innovators the ESF Army personnel aborard the Celestial Being developed the Innovator-Use Mobile Armor GNMA-Y0002V Gadelaza with help from Veda and the Innovades. Designed according to a "one man army" ideology, Gadelaza was selected as a potential replacement for the GN-X series but had to compete against the GNX-Y903V Brave-Series, developed from such transformable MS such as the Flag and Enact, to become the next-generation mainstay design of the ESF Army. The Gadelaza would eventually be mass produced years after the ELS Conflict, during the Innovator War, but is unknown if it was the next mainstay Mobile Weapon of the Federation Army. After the ELS Conflict the GN-XIV underwent a slight upgraded into the GN-XIV Core Fighter Loaded Type which was deployed by the Old Human Faction during the Innovator War.

By A.D. 2364, the Earth Sphere Federation appears to have not only have gained information to create but also mastered the process of producing True GN Drives. It is not specified whether this development is due to Celestial Being releasing the information or if the Federation just closed the technological gap, which was possible due to their larger extent of resources. There does exist circumstantial evidence that CB and the Earth Sphere Federation could have reconciled and shared information due to the fact that there exists the an ESF starship named the Sumeragi after CB's tactical forecaster, Sumeragi Lee Noriega. The state of the ESF Army at this time is unknown nor is it known whether the organization even exists to this time period.

ESF Army Personnels

 * Vice Admiral Kim - KIA in ELS War (Assimilated)
 * Brigadier General Kati Mannequin - Previously a member of A-Laws. Defected to and led ESF Coup d'état Faction in A.D. 2312. Returned to ESF Army and eventually promoted (previously Colonel)
 * Colonel Pang Hercules - Defected and led the ESF Coup d'état Faction. Killed by A-Laws Officer Andrei Smirnov during the Break Pillar Incident
 * Billy Katagiri - Previously a member of A-Laws. Later ESF Chief Mobile Suit Designer
 * Colonel Sergei Smirnov - Killed by A-Laws Officer Andrei Smirnov during the Break Pillar Incident
 * First Lieutenant Andrei Smirnov - Previously a member of A-Laws. KIA in ELS War
 * Commander Patrick Colasour - Previously a member of A-Laws. Defected to ESF Coup d'état Faction in A.D. 2312
 * Graham Aker - Commander of the Solbraves Squadron. KIA during the ELS War
 * Viktor Leonov - A member of the Solbraves Squadron
 * Rudolf Schreiber - A member of the Solbraves Squadron
 * Akira Takei - A member of the Solbraves Squadron
 * Yagan Crow - A member of the Solbraves Squadron. KIA during ELS War
 * Naguib Neferu - A member of the Solbraves Squadron
 * Amy Zimbalist - MS Pilot
 * Deborah Galiena - MS Pilot
 * Flinch - An Innovade MS pilot from Gundam 00I. Killed by Lars Grise
 * Captain Descartes Shaman - KIA during ELS War
 * Brigadier General Arthur Goodman - Transferred to A-Laws. Was charged with anti-Kataron operations (Deceased)
 * Captain Barack Zinin - Transfer to A-Laws (Deceased)
 * Major Arba Lindt - Transferred to A-Laws (Deceased)
 * Colonel Lee Zhejiang - Transferred to A-Laws (Deceased)