MSN-001 Delta Gundam

MSN-001 Delta Gundam (aka δ Gundam) was a conceptual mobile suit design which was never constructed but would be further developed in the form of the MSN-00100 Hyaku Shiki and MSN-001A1 Delta Plus. This unit was featured in the MS Graphica art book and the game Mobile Suit Gundam UC (The Postwar).

Technology & Combat Characteristics
This machine is how the MSN-00100 Hyaku Shiki, which was initially developed as a transformable mobile suit but completed as a non-transformable mobile suit due to problems with insufficient frame strength, would appear if completed as a transformable mobile suit. While Anaheim Electronics was trying various approaches to develop a production model of the Zeta series as a transformable mobile suit, it also simultaneously conducted a reinvestigation of the shelved Delta plan.

The Delta Gundam is armed with the standard armaments of a mobile suit, a beam rifle, beam saber, and shield. It also features the anti-beam reflective coating featured on the Hyaku Shiki.

Armaments

 * 60mm Vulcan Gun
 * A standard armament of Federation mobile suits. These head mounted shell firing weapons have a high-rate of fire but have little power and are generally ineffective against mobile suits, though it 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 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 emits a blade of plasma contained by an I-Field and is capable of cutting through almost any metal that has not been treated with anti-beam coating.


 * Beam Rifle
 * The standard ranged armament of the majority of mobile suits is the beam rifle. It is powered by a rechargeable energy cap, if the energy cap runs out of energy it can be replaced with a fresh one. The particle beam fired from a beam rifle can penetrate almost any armor that has not been treated with specific counter-measures.


 * Shield
 * The Delta Gundam's defensive armament, able to defend the Delta Gundam against both beam and physical attacks. It doubles as the unit's forward section in waverider mode.

System Features

 * Anti-Beam Reflective Coating
 * The Anti-Beam Coating technology coats multiple layers of high specific heat capacity material on top of the armor of the mobile suit that evaporates in high temperature. It provides a type of sacrificial protection against any type of beam weapon. However, due to its nature of ablating when defending against great heat, Anti-Beam Coating (ABC) can only tolerate a few hits to the same spot.


 * This feature was first tested on the MSN-00100 Hyaku Shiki. Due to its high cost, the Anti-Beam Coating on mobile suits was only used on a few mobile suits.

History
The Delta Gundam has long been seen only as a CG model on the net. Although the existence of its direct descendant the Delta Plus has been confirmed, it is possible the original Delta Gundam itself was never constructed and exists only as a computer simulation.

In UC 0094, the data of the Delta Gundam is however, not forgotten as Riddhe fought the said mobile suit in a simulator battle against Quattro Bageena's combat data. Seeing the potential of the Delta Gundam, the developers on Anaheim Electronics decided to develop the MSN-001X Gundam Delta Kai for test purposes.

Variants

 * MSN-00100 Hyaku Shiki
 * MSN-001A1 Delta Plus
 * MSN-001X Gundam Delta Kai