MS-07 Gouf

This is a mobile suit, a fictional weapon from the Universal Century timeline from the anime Gundam metaseries.

YMS-07A Prototype Gouf
The Gouf was the successor to the MS-06J Zaku II Ground Type mobile suit. The Zeonic Company engineers worked hard to produce their superior ground-combat-use mobile suit to replace the older J-Type Zaku II.

The Prototype Gouf was just a redesigned and improved upon Zaku II, lighter due to more efficient use of equipment and space, and more maneuverable than the typical F-Type Zaku II. The Prototype Gouf was also supposed to be built with a 5-barreled 75 mm machine gun hand and tentacle-like heat rod built into the forearm. However, these weapons were not ready until the second prototype, the YMS-07B Prototype Gouf, was finished. The B-Type Prototype Gouf also featured extra thrusters built into the legs to provide powerful, jet assisted jumps and improved maneuverability. The YMS-07B was nearly identical to the mass production version of the Gouf known as the MS-07B Gouf.



MS-07A Gouf
Although the MS-06J Zaku II Ground Type was doing a fair job, the Principality of Zeon saw a need for a more effective ground based mobile suit for their operations on Earth. After the designing and testing of the YMS-07A Prototype Gouf, the first model Gouf was rolled out as the MS-07A Gouf. The A-Type Gouf was a "dumbed-down" model of the true model design. It had been released early to training battalions to get pilots used to the controls. Some models were also released into combat service for those units that desperately needed a higher performance mobile suit. The A-Type Gouf lacked several of weapons from its mass production brother, including the 75 mm five-finger/barrel machine gun left hand and the tentacle-whip "heat rod" mounted on the right forearm.



MS-07B Gouf
Quickly though, the A-Type Gouf was replaced by the completed MS-07B Gouf model. This full model had the 75 mm machine gun hand and "heat rod", which could be used as a superheated slicing weapon or as a grappling weapon with a powerful electric shock effect. It also had a powerful heat sword, an improved heat-based weapon from the Zaku's heat hawk. The Gouf could also use the standard Zaku II weapons, such as 120 mm machine gun or 280 mm bazooka.

The Zeon pilot, Lieutenant Ramba Ral, played havoc with the crew of the Pegasus-Class Assault Carrier White Base and the young pilot of the RX-78-2 Gundam with his YMS-07B Gouf, a prototype of the standard B-Type Gouf.

The Gouf easily outstripped the MS-06F Zaku II, but its improvement was not justified by its increased cost. The Gouf's production was cut short by the development of a more cost efficient unit, the more powerful and nimble MS-09 Dom. Despite its very short production run, it was still deployed across the world alongside Zakus and Doms.



MS-07B3 Gouf Custom
The MS-07B-3 was a further development of the MS-07B Gouf. The Gouf Custom was designed primarily for ace pilots preferring a lighter mobile suit to the heavy, yet effective MS-09 Dom. The Gouf Custom featured multiple changes to the MS-07B, including the elimination of the awkward five finger 75 mm vulcan guns, replacing it with a normal manipulator and a wrist mounted 3-barrel 35 mm Machinegun. The coil-like heat rod is replaced with a magnetic grappler wire that connects and disables an enemy with an electric charge rather than damaging him or her. The shield is also capable of carrying a 90 mm vulcan gun, extremely enhancing the mobile suit's fire power. The armor and capabilities are only changed slightly from the "B" model Gouf but some units had Luna Titanium armor in place of the standard steel material.

Unlike the Zaku, which fights well in forests, and the Dom, which fights well on flat plains, the Gouf and Gouf Custom fight best in urban settings. In Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team, a Gouf Custom pilot, Norris Packard, easily destroys three RX-75D Guntanks and damages three RX-79(G)Ground-combat Gundams before he is killed in battle by Shiro Amada in his RX-79(G) Ez8 customized Ground Combat Gundam.



MS-07H8 Gouf Flight Type
With the serious problems encountered in the attempt to develop an atmospheric flight-capable mobile suit during the One Year War, the Zeon military halted its program to actively develop a flying mobile suit. However, the idea continued to linger, and experimental units still occasionally found their way into the field for testing. The eighth incarnation of the Gouf Flight Type was the MS-07H8, a version of the MS-07B3 geared towards experimental applications, which was equipped with an improved backpack and more powerful thrusters and thermonuclear jet engines. Aerodynamic control surface wings were added to the backpack and waist armor, giving the Gouf Flight Type more stability in flight. Unfortunately, the H8 still suffered some of the same problems encountered by previous versions: engine overheating and rapid fuel consumption at high altitudes and high speeds, limiting its range and flight time. Despite these setbacks at least two units were fielded in defence of the Zeon mountain research facility.



YMS-08A High Mobility Prototype
The Earth Attack Force's design, simply code named the High Mobility Prototype, was actually very similar in design and construction to the Zeonic Company's competing model, the YMS-07A Prototype Gouf. The High Mobility Prototype featured new thruster arrays in the lower legs, which made the mobile suit capable of performing short thruster-assisted jumps, an innovation that was also featured in the Prototype Gouf.

A total of eight High Mobility Prototype units would be constructed by the Earth Attack Force for field testing, but they proved to be incredibly expensive units to manufacture, not cost effective for the small increases in performance that the unit achieved. The High Mobility Prototype program would later be merged with Zeonic Company's MS-07 Gouf development programs, although some of its design features also carried over into the MS-08TX Efreet. The eight High Mobility Prototypes that were built would later be shifted to full combat duty.



MS-07B Gouf M'Quve Custom
During the One Year War, it was very common for high ranking Principality of Zeon officers and ace pilots to receive personally customized mobile suits. One such unit was the personal MS-07B Gouf of Colonel M'Quve, commander of the Zeon mining facilities at Odessa, Ukraine. M'Quve's Gouf was functionally equivalent to a standard Gouf, but it was decorated with many ornate gold markings and engravings, and a custom spearhead-like command antenna that would eventually be carried over to the YMS-15 Gyan, which M'Quve personally designed.



MS-07C-3 Gouf Heavy Arms Type
Although it was designed as a replacement for the Principality of Zeon's aging squads of MS-06J Zaku IIs, the new MS-07 Gouf proved to be at a severe disadvantage in ranged situations due to its lack of armaments. To try and remedy this situation, Zeon began to produce a few mission specific variations of the Gouf, one of them being the Gouf Heavy Arms Type.

The few Gouf Heavy Arms Types that were developed were deployed mainly in continental Europe. The heat rod close combat weapon on the Gouf's right forearm was removed in the Gouf Heavy Arms Type and both hands were replaced with heavy five-barrel 85 mm machine guns fed by larger-capacity ammunition clips. Spare ammunition clips were stored on the hip skirt armor. To supplement its weaponry and provide better close combat protection, the Gouf Heavy Arms Type also featured a single 30 mm machinegun mounted in its forehead. However, all of these new weapons and ammunition increased the Gouf Heavy Arms Types weight, so extra thrusters were added to the legs to compensate for the additional weight.



MS-07C-5 Gouf Test Prototype
In its efforts to create a dominant land use mobile suit, the Zeon's Zimmad Company took a standard MS-07 Gouf and extensively modified it. The new unit they created was dubbed the Gouf Test Prototype. The Gouf Test Prototype mounted several extra thrusters in its legs to give it the ability to hover short distances across the ground. It was also given an experimental heat sword melee weapon that was substantially larger than the normal Gouf heat saber.

Only a single Gouf Test Prototype was constructed during the One Year War, and it was used explicitly as a testbed for new innovations in mobile suit design, never seeing any actual combat. The data gathered from the Gouf Test Prototype would be compiled and several of the new technologies that were tested with it would become standard issue when the Zimmad Company created their next mobile suit, the MS-09 Dom.



MS-07H Gouf Flight Test Type
When the Principality of Zeon's mobile suit forces invaded Earth, their mobile suits, which had proved to be a highly useful weapon in the zero-gravity environment of space, were not as capable or combat effective when placed under the gravity of Earth. While on Earth's surface, mobile suits were reduced to very large, slow-moving targets, which made fighters made for atmospheric combat surprisingly effective against them (Federal pilot Reed Wolf, for example, was a fighter ace before becoming a Mobile Suit pilot). This encouraged Zeon engineers to think of ways to create a mobile suit design that was capable of sustained atmospheric flight.

Four of Zeon's newest ground combat mobile suits, the MS-07 Gouf, were extensively modified into the experimental Gouf Flight Test Type. The engineers mounted wing-like projections on the Gouf's backpack to create an aerodynamic control surface, as well as a very large pair of thermonuclear jet engines on each leg to provide the needed thrust to get off the ground. The four prototypes were developed and initially stationed at Zeon's California Base, but were later transferred to a Zeon air base in Arizona where they underwent an extensive two-week period of flight tests.

The Gouf Flight Test Type did prove capable of achieving atmospheric flight, however the design was also discovered to be severely flawed. As the Zeon further tested the Gouf Flight Test Type, they constantly reworked the design, updating and rebuilding the unit in the field to overcome the problems they encountered. But despite the changes, the design was still found to be highly flawed.

After four weeks, test-flight accidents left only one Gouf Flight Type functional. This unit would be equipped with a new set of higher-performance engines and thrusters and it was assigned a new model number, MS-07H-4 Gouf Flight Test Type, to reflect the change in design. However, on its tenth day of flight testing with the new engines, the Gouf Flight Test Type experienced massive engine failure and exploded in mid-air, killing test pilot Frank Bellnarl. Following the accident, Zeon's official flight-type mobile suit development programs were all immediately canceled.

However, despite official cancellations, a few clandestine and unofficial programs were still underway to create a mobile suit that was capable of atmospheric flight. One of these programs eventually created the MS-07H8 Gouf Flight Type, a relative success compared to the earlier models of flight-capable Goufs.

After the One Year War ended the few Gouf Flight Types that remained were absorbed into the Earth Federation forces. In UC 0087, a small number of these units were stationed at the Federation's former headquarters in Jaburo, where the Gouf Flight Type demonstrated that while it was unreliable at best in actual flight, it was functional (though outdated) as a ground combat unit along the lines of the MS-09 Dom.

Trivia

 * The Gouf's name (along with that of its CE ZGMF-X2000 GOUF Ignited counterpart) was used as the basis for the official English language Gundam site's short lived Gundam Official User Forum (more commonly referred to as GOUF).