FA-78-1 Full Armor Gundam

The FA-78-1 Gundam Full Armor Type (aka Full Armor Gundam and Perfect Gundam II) is a Mobile Suit and variant of the RX-78-2 Gundam equipped with external armor. It is featured in the original design series Mobile Suit Variation.

Technology & Combat Characteristics
The new weaponry of the Gundam Full Armor Type consists of a large rocket-firing cannon mounted over the Full Armor Gundam's right shoulder, four missile launchers, two mounted in the upper torso and two more in the knees, and a new twin-barreled beam gun secured to the right arm. The Gundam Full Armor Type also had several removable armor modules that could be placed over the Gundam's existing armor. These new armor modules also incorporated several additional thrusters and maneuvering verniers.

Armaments

 * 60mm Vulcan Guns
 * 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.


 * 360mm Rocket Launcher
 * Mounted on the right shoulder is a large rocket-firing cannon.


 * Missile Launchers
 * There are four missile launchers on the Gundam Full Armor, one on each knee and two mounted on the upper torso.


 * Beam Saber
 * The standard close range armament for most Federation mobile suits. 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. The Gundam Full Armor Type can optionally carry 2 beam sabers on the rear skirt armor, but lacks the ability to recharge them.


 * 2-barrel Hand Beam Gun
 * A double barrel beam gun that is secured to the right arm is powered by rechargeable energy cap. The particle beam fired from the beam gun could penetrate almost any armor that has not been treated with specific counter-measures.

Special Equipment & Features

 * Full-Armor System and Weapon System (FSWS)
 * The upgrade program, developed several options packs to increase the Gundam's combat ability. It includes new weapon and extra armor plates, The system increases the Gundam's firepower and resilient considerately, but also reduce its maneuverability by a large margin.

History
As the RX-78-2 Gundam continued to score victory after victory against the Zeon forces in the One Year War, the Earth Federation Forces engineers began to devise several different upgrades to supplement and further increase the combat capabilities of the Gundam. The upgrade program, called the Full-Armor System and Weapon System (FSWS), developed several options packs to increase the Gundam's already considerable power. One of these designs was the Gundam Full Armor Type, which vastly increased the Gundam's firepower and armor.

However, due to the Full Armor Gundam's massive increase in weight, it suffered a sharp drop in mobility which the new thrusters could not sufficiently compensate for. It was deemed that the loss in speed and maneuverability would be unacceptable and the Gundam Full Armor Type never left the development stages. The Gundam Full Armor Type would never be built, and only existed on paper. Although the FA-78-1 Gundam Full Armor Type was deemed to be a design failure while it was still in the planning phases, the Earth Federation continued to design new upgrades for the RX-78-2 Gundam under Full-Armor System and Weapon System (FSWS) program. However the plans for the unit would later be used as the basis of creating the FA-78-2 Heavy Gundam.

The Full Armor Gundam is piloted at the Battle of A Baoa Qu by Lieutenant Heinz Baer, but was destroyed by Johnny Ridden in his MS-06R-2 Zaku II High Mobility Type. An image of the battle can be seen on the cover of the Master Grade FA-78-1 Full Armor Gundam model kit.

Variants

 * FA-78-1B Gundam Full Armor Type-B
 * FA-78-2 Heavy Gundam
 * FA-78 Full Armor Gundam (Thunderbolt Sector)
 * FA-78(G) Full Armor Gundam Ground Type