MS-09R Rick Dom

The MS-09R Rick Dom is a mass-production space combat mobile suit, and variant of the MS-09 Dom. It was first featured in the anime/manga Mobile Suit Gundam.

Technology & Combat Characteristics
The space-type version, the MS-09R Rick Dom, had the original MS-09 Dom's hover jets replaced with rocket thrusters for use outside of the atmosphere. The resulting mobile suit had superior armor, power output, thrust, and maneuverability than the MS-06F Zaku II, the mobile suit the MS-09R Rick Dom was to replace.

For combat the MS-09R Rick Dom relied on the same weapons and tactics as the ground use original. The MS-09R Rick Dom's standard armament is a 360mm bazooka which fires rocket propelled explosive rounds, giving the Rick Dom the power to destroy an enemy mobile suit in a single shot or to heavily damage an enemy warship. For melee combat the Rick Dom uses a heat saber, a rod which heats to super-high temperatures and can melt through the armor of an enemy mobile suit. The heat saber has a larger surface area to heat, which requires more energy, but the greater surface area gives it greater range, making it more effective in combat than the heat hawk used by the old F-type Zaku II. And built into the chest of the Rick Dom is a scattering beam gun, which is useless for actually damaging an enemy, but is employed as a diversionary weapon for its ability to blind an enemy's eyes and sensors for several moments.

In order to increase its combat abilities the Principality of Zeon develops an experimental beam bazooka that several Rick Doms are outfitted with. The beam bazooka is capable of dramatically increasing the offensive power of the Rick Dom but the beam bazooka is never put into mass production.

Because of the Dom's bulkier build, possessing a larger frame and heavier armor, a Musai-Class Light Cruiser could only carry two MS-09Rs in its main hangar, as opposed to three of the smaller (but weaker) Zaku II's.

Armaments

 * Scattering Beam Gun
 * A chest mounted scattering beam gun. Does little damage to enemy mobile suits but can be used to blind enemy pilots for several seconds.


 * Heat Saber Type7
 * The Rick Dom features an improved version of the Dom Type2 heat saber. The heat saber is battery powered and can be stored on a back recharge rack.


 * H&L-GB05R/360mm Giant Bazooka
 * The primary weapon of the Rick Dom is a large bazooka. The bazooka is magazine fed and holds 10 rounds per magazine, and a single round can blow the torso off of an enemy mobile suit.


 * Ex-T2-2 Beam Bazooka
 * A new weapon developed near the end of the war and given to the Rick Dom. It is an experimental beam bazooka.

History
Late during the One Year war, the Principality of Zeon sought to replace their line of MS-06 Zaku II mobile suits with more advanced machines in order to end the stalemate of the One Year War. It later became more imperative in order to counter the Earth Federation's own mobile suit development. For its terrestrial war front the Zeon forces deployed the MS-09 Dom, a fast-moving heavy assault mobile suit that would serve as the successor of the MS-06J Zaku II Ground Type.

Because of the success of the ground use MS-09 Dom, its producer Zimmad began work on a space-use variant. To acquire the needed data, Zimmad modified an MS-06F Zaku II by replacing the standard legs with larger Dom-style legs equipped with rocket thrusters. This allowed the MS-06RD-4 Zaku II Prototype to maneuver as the new mobile suit was predicted to. Though destroyed in battle the test data was recovered and used to produce the MS-09R Rick Dom.

Major battles that MS-09R Rick Dom mobile suits would participate in would include various skirmishes near Side 6 to destroy White Base and the Gundam, the Battle of Solomon on January 25th where ace pilot Anavel Gato would use an MS-09R Rick Dom and earn the nickname "Nightmare of Solomon, and the Battle of A Baoa Qu.

Because the Principality of Zeon was pushed off the Earth shortly after the introduction of the MS-09 Dom its space-use variant had a longer production run, but even then it would last for only a few months as in the final weeks of the One Year War the Principality of Zeon would begin focusing their production capabilities to produce the high-performance MS-14 Gelgoog model mobile suit and its variants. However because of their dire situation all three major front-line mobile suit; the Zaku, the Rick Dom, and the Gelgoog would be used before the end of the war on January first of UC 0080.

An improved model of the Rick Dom was produced very late in the war, the MS-09RII Rick Dom II, as part of the United Maintenance Plan, an initiative to improve the performance of existing mobile suit models and standardize the parts used in their construction in order to improve the cost efficiency of both construction and maintenance.

Variants

 * MS-09RII Rick Dom II
 * MS-09R Rick Dom "Stutzer"
 * MS-09RS Rick Dom Char Aznable Custom
 * MS-09R4 (MS-09RN) MS-09S Psycommu Rick Dom "Schnee Weiss"