MS-06R-1A Zaku II High Mobility Type

The MS-06R-1A Zaku II High Mobility Type is a mass-production space combat mobile suit, and one of many variants of the standard MS-06 Zaku II.

Technology and combat Characteristics
After the successful release of the MS-06R-1 Zaku II High Mobility Test Type the Zeon engineers began to receive feedback from the pilots of the new units on ways the design of the mobile suit could be further improved upon. The new ideas were incorporated into the next release of the MS-06R-1A Zaku II High Mobility Type. The Zaku II High Mobility Type had some minor engine problems corrected, and the larger capacity propellant tanks were removed and replaced with exchangeable fuel cartridges, which were much quicker to reload and refuel.

Armaments

 * 120mm Zaku Machine Gun
 * The 120mm machine gun is a standard non-beam weapon for Zaku type mobile suits. It is a shell firing gun that does not require energy to be used, however its effectiveness against heavy armor is very little. The ZMP-50D used a 100-round drum magazine.


 * 280mm Zaku Bazooka
 * The 280mm Zaku Bazooka was another standard weapon that could be equipped to a Zaku type mobile suit. The bazooka fired explosive rounds that were quite effective against the armor of Earth Federation battleships. However the bazooka could only be loaded with a single round at a time, thus it had to be used carefully. The bazooka was front loaded which is difficult to do while a mobile suit is changing vectors. The bazooka could be stored on the rear waist armor while spare ammunition could be stored on the side hip armor.


 * Heat Hawk
 * An axe-shaped close combat weapon, it uses a super-heated blade to cut through the armor of enemy MS or vehicles. The thermal energy is generated by the power output of the Zaku II's thermonuclear reactor and relayed through the MS' hands.


 * MIP-B6 Multi-Use Grenade
 * Identical to those used by infantry, the cracker grenade is an explosive weapons designed to be thrown or launched by the MS and detonate after a set amount of time. The "cracker" breaks into several smaller munitions over a wide area.

History
A total of fifty-six Zaku II High Mobility Types would be constructed, with half of the existing Zaku II High Mobility Test Types upgraded to the R1-A model. The Zaku II High Mobility Type became a highly sought after unit by many notable ace pilots such as the Black Tri-Stars, Eric Mansfield, Masaya Nakagawa, and Shin Matsunaga. But despite its incredible popularity and high performance, the suit was considered too difficult for rookie pilots to handle, as well as too expensive for a mass production run.