RGM-79C GM Type C

The RGM-79C GM Type C (aka GM Kai) is an improved version of one of the Earth Federation's first mass production mobile suit, the RGM-79(E) GM Early Type. It first appeared in Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory.

Technology & Combat Characteristics
This improved model was dubbed the RGM-79C GM Kai, and was similar to the original GM in its armaments and abilities, as they both shared the 90mm machine gun and the Hyper Bazooka. The C-Type did feature greatly improved thrust and its maneuverability was greatly improved too.

Armaments

 * Vulcan Gun
 * A standard armament of the mobile suits that are descended from the Earth Federation Forces's RX series is a pair of head mounted 60mm vulcan guns. These shell firing weapons have a high-rate of fire but have little power and can't damage the thick armor of a mobile suit, though it can damage lightly armored areas such as the sensors. The weapons are ideal for shooting down small, fast moving, lightly armored targets such as missiles, small land vehicles, and attack helicopters.


 * Beam Saber
 * The RGM-79C GM Kai is equipped with a single beam saber stored in a recharge rack in the left side of the backpack. The 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.


 * HWF GMG·MG79-90mm Bullpup Machine Gun
 * The bullpup machine gun is an open-bolt, gas-operated, magazine-fed, mobile suit handheld sub-machine gun. It does not require energy to be used, however it is ineffective against heavy armor. When the magazine is empty, it can be discarded and replaced with a new one.


 * HFW-GR·MR82-90mm GM Rifle
 * The GM Rifle is a simple shell-firing machine gun that is based on older technologies, it has no where near the power of a beam rifle, but it is a weapon that can be cheaply produced and easily maintained. It features different barrel, sensor unit, stock and magazine configurations that allows for different ballistic and handling properties. The ammunition is stored in spare clips that can be replaced when they are used up.


 * BLASH HB-L-07/N-STD Hyper Bazooka
 * Similar to the Zaku's Bazooka, the Hyper Bazooka was a heavy weapon used by the GM. Technically a large rocket launcher it could fire several 360mm missiles to attack targets at long range. While very powerful the Hyper Bazooka had a slow rate of fire and fairly little of ammunition. Most oftenly used to take out slow, heavily armored targets.


 * BR-M-79C-3 Beam Spray Gun


 * BOWA XBC-M-83D-2C Beam Carbine


 * Long Rifle


 * Gundam Hammer
 * A rather unusual weapon, the Gundam Hammer was essentially a large spiked ball attached to a chain. It was used to give the MS using it a ranged melee weapon. The MS could either throw or swing the Hammer around itself in order to impact and damage its target through the sheer mass of the hammer.


 * FADEGEL RGM-M-Sh-007 Shield
 * Shields are simple in their design, being essentially thick slabs of metal that the equipped mobile suit can use to absorb the impact from attacks that, for whatever reason, cannot be dodged. However shields can only withstand so much pressure before becoming damaged themselves. As technology progressed it became necessary for shields to be treated with an anti-beam coating as a measure of defense against beam weapons which can normally penetrate any physical barrier, however the coating gets gradually burned away each time a beam strikes it until it is rendered useless.

History
After the end of the One Year War, the Federation forces began a massive restructuring and rebuilding of its military strength. Finally recognizing that mobile suit warfare was here to stay they set about improving on their own mass-produced Mobile Suit the RGM-79 GM. The RGM-79C GM Kai unit became the standard production model for front-line units, gradually phasing out the older GM. Ultimately, because the GM Kai's unoriginality, and its only mildly improved performance over its predecessor, the Earth Federation would design and build many other GM descendants, such as the RGM-79N GM Custom and RGM-79Q GM Quel. However none of these designs proved to possess what the Earth Federation was looking for and the RGM-79C GM Kai would remain the mainstay unit of the Earth Federation until the development of the RMS-179/RGM-79R GM II and the RMS-106 Hizack.

Variants

 * RGM-79CR GM Type C High Mobility Type
 * RGM-79C GM Type C "Wagtail"
 * RGM-79C GM Type C (Keraunos Squad)
 * RGM-79C[G] GM Type C[G]