Lesseps-class

The Lesseps-class land battleships is are ZAFT vessels designed to domimate the land, just as the Vosgulov-class submarines dominate the sea. However, it is more accurately called an amphibious battleship, as its snake-like "scale system" allows it to traverse the open sea as well as travelling over ground. It is heavily armed with 3 dual 40cm cannons and 32 vertical missile launchers, but like all ZAFT vessels, its most important armament is its mobile suit compliment. Unusually, the Lesseps lacks any linear catapults for launching its mobile suits, but as it was designed specifically to use the quadrupedal ground-combat TMF/A-802 BuCUE, this was deemed unnecessary. In addition, it sometimes uses a pair of slow but heavily armed TFA-2 ZuOOTs on its upper deck as a pair of extra turrets.

The lead ship of the Lesseps-class was assigned to ace pilot Andrew Waltfeld, the renowned "Desert Tiger", and served as the flagship of his North African occupation force, headquartered in the city of Banadiya. As Waltfeld frequently piloted a TMF/A-802 BuCUE and later a TMF/A-803 LaGOWE in battle, operational control of the Lesseps often fell to his subordinate Martin DaCosta. The Lesseps was abandoned after suffering severe damage at the hands of the Earth Alliance ship Archangel. It was then salvaged by the Junk Guild, which replaced its main turrets with 3 large manipulator arms for handling cargo. In CE 73, another Lesseps-class vessel, the Desmond, assisted the battleship Minerva in the Battle of the Gulnahan Ravine.

The Lesseps is named after 19th-century diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps. The Desmond may be named after the 20th century religious figure and philosopher Archbishop Desmond Tutu.