RMS-154 Barzam

The RMS-154 Barzam is a mass-produced general purpose mobile suit. It was featured in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam and the photo-novel Advance of Zeta: The Flag of Titans.

Technology & Combat Characteristics
The RMS-154 Barzam was designed to be a high-performance unit for use by regular forces, but in low cost. The Barzam was submitted as a proposal for a mass production type model based on the RX-178 Gundam Mk-II, and was developed for the EFF as their next flagship MS. However, it was not able to secure enough development time for this request, and planning was carried out based on the design of existing MS.

Construction was completed at the EFF New Guinea base, most notably with the involvement of former Zeon engineers. The completed unit is said to be a high performance machine, having balanced specifications because it adopted the design concept of the Gundam Mk-II. However, because priority was given to ease of production and the result of excessive simplification of the machine's structure, its form is very different over that of existing MS. The chest armor has a double structure, designed with consideration for the safety of the pilot. It features a Zeon-style mono-eye camera/sensor in the head. In addition, the waist and abdomen have been integrated into the chest, with legs fixed directly from the bottom edge of the chest. The Barzam was highly versatile, and could be equipped with any of the hand-held weaponry available to the RMS-179/RGM-79R GM II, and RMS-106 Hizack mobile suits, as well as its own unique beam rifle. It also featured two beam sabers stored in the recharge racks in its forearms, and could be equipped with the head-mounted double-vulcan pods created for the Gundam Mk-II, and also the generator from the RMS-108 Marasai.

Armaments

 * Beam Saber
 * beam saber is a small cylindrical device held in the mobile suit's hands when operated and is powered by an energy capacitor that is recharged from special racks. The beam saber is capable of cutting through any metal that has not been treated with anti-beam coating. The Barzam is equipped with two beam sabers stored in  recharge racks on each of the Barzam's wrists.


 * VCU-505EX-Gry/Ver.009 60mm Double Vulcan
 * These head mounted shell firing weapons have a high-rate of fire, but have little power and are generally ineffective against mobile suits; however, the vulcan gun can damage lightly armored areas such as the sensors. These weapons are ideal for shooting down small, fast moving, lightly armored targets such as missiles or small vehicles.


 * Beam Rifle
 * The standard ranged armament of the many mobile suits is the beam rifle. The particle beam fired from a beam rifle can penetrate almost any armor that has not been treated with specific counter-measures. Like most beam weapons of the period, it is powered by a replaceable energy cap. If the beam rifle runs out of energy, the current energy cap can be removed and replaced by a new one, which is stored on the unit's shield.

History
In UC 0087, the Earth Federation Forces planned to develop a new mass-production mobile suit to replace their outdated RMS-179/RGM-79R GM II units. One of the designs submitted for consideration was that of the RMS-154 Barzam. The inner frame design of the Barzam was based on that of the RX-178 Gundam Mk-II, but based on the outwards appearance of the Barzam alone the similarities were hardly apparent.

However, the Barzam's attempts to be basic were far too successful, and the unit was deemed too generic. Without any special weaponry or unique abilities the Barzam was just an ordinary unit, and the Earth Federation Forces decided for only a limited mass-production run. Also, the Barzam's generator was too powerful for the suit, resulting in various balance problems.

It is UC 0088, in the last weeks of the struggle between the AEUG and the Titans, when a small group of elite Federal Forces officers stationed at the asteroid fortress Pezun revolt against the pro-AEUG Federation leadership. The rebels, led by Brave Cod, declare themselves the "New Desides" (a hybrid of "decision" and "dissident"). They swear to fight on for the Titans’ ideology of Earthnoid supremacy. A quick battle erupts between the Federation Barzams and the newer New Decides Xeku Eins, and New Decides are successful in gaining control of the asteroid. Although Axis is the major threat on the horizon, the Federation decides that this rebellion must be put down.

Variants

 * MSA-008 (RGM-87) Bar-GM
 * RMS-154 Refined Barzam
 * RMS-154R (01) Barzam Commander Custom
 * RMS-156 Griffin

Notes & Trivia

 * In the game Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Zeta Gundam, the Barzam's beam rifle can be charged up to fire a more powerful beam.