RGM-79 GM

The RGM-79 GM (aka GM, pronounced Jim) was the first mass-produced mobile suit of the Earth Federation. It first appears in Mobile Suit Gundam.

Technology & Combat Characteristics
The RGM-79 GM is a mass-produced mobile suit based on the technology of the RX-78-2 Gundam. Its basic frame is easily adaptable to modifications into mission specific GM models, and has a fairly high level of mobility, for the time, both on Earth and in space. It has a maximum acceleration of 0.94 Gs in space, which is better than the Gundam's 0.93 Gs and roughly twice of the Zaku's acceleration. On the Earth's surface, the GM is also faster than the Zaku II with a top running speed of 102 km/h compared to the Zeon mobile suit's 88 km/h. The armor of the GM uses titanium alloy, a sturdy metal that could be refined more quickly and easily than the Gundam's Luna Titanium Alloy. Although titanium is less durable than luna titanium, it is also slightly lighter which reduces the GM's overall mass compared to the Gundam's and is still superior to the Zaku II's super-high tensile steel armor.

The GM was primarily armed with a beam spray gun, which was basically a downgrade in most aspects of the Gundam's powerful beam rifle. It did have the distinction of being the first mass-produced beam weapon - something the Zeon forces had yet to do. The beam spray gun had a shorter range than the beam rifles used by other Federation MS, but it could still destroy MS in one shot and was just as accurate and had a higher rate of fire and more ammo. The GM can also used 100mm and 90mm machine guns (the latter having less ammunition but a better armor penetration rate), or even the Gundam's beam rifle when required. The GMs can also used remakes of the Gundam's 380mm Hyper Bazooka for heavier firepower. For close quarters combat, the GM featured a single beam saber, although some models had the twin-saber backpack of the Gundam, and a shield for defense. Lastly, the GM had a pair of 60mm vulcan guns mounted in its head for intercepting enemy's missiles, small vehicles or to stop enemy MS from closing in. Early in production, the beam spray gun had yet to be completely mass-produced so most GMs were equipped with machine guns.

From the GM will start the RGM series, that will remain the mainstay of the Federation's mass production mobile suits until the end of the Federation itself.

Armaments

 * 60mm Vulcan Gun
 * Mounted in the head, the pair of Vulcan guns were 60mm Gatling Guns and have a high rate of fire. Primarily used to ward off advancing enemies, shoot down missiles or other fast moving targets, they also made good use as an anti-aircraft and anti-personnel weapons. They however had a hard time piercing heavy armor, though they had shown the ability to do severe damage to Mobile Suit if fired at point-blank range.


 * THI BSjG01 Beam Saber
 * A close combat weapon, the GM only stores one beam saber in its backpack unlike the Gundam. The beam saber use Minovsky particles held in place by an I-Field to form an effective cutting surface that can slice through nearly any material. The particles for the beam saber are stored in a rechargeable E-cap in the hilt of the saber. Some GMs were fielded with two beam sabers.


 * BR-M-79C-1 Beam Spray Gun
 * The Beam Spray Gun is essentially the Gundam's beam rifle in a smaller, weaker form. The beam spray gun has a smaller focusing coil which results in a less powerful, and a more scattered shot. As a result, it is less effective at long range, but better at close range due to a more spread out shot, similar to a shotgun effect. While less powerful than the beam rifle, the beam spray gun could still penetrate the armor of a Rick Dom - one of the most heavily armored mobile suits of the One Year War. The beam spray gun has a power rating of 1.4 MW and is powered by a rechargeable energy cap.


 * BOWA-XBR-M-79-07G Beam Rifle
 * Used by some of the GMs stationed at E.F.F.'s headquarter in Jaburo, this is the same weapon as used by the RX-78-2 Gundam. Making use of the Federations' E-cap (or "energy capacitor") technology, the rifle uses charged concentrations of Minovsky particles as ammunition. This gives the beam rifle firepower equivalent to that of a battleship's beam cannons. As the Minovsky particles destroy matter on a molecular scale, the beam rifle can penetrate even the thickest armor and destroy its target with a single shot. A weakness of the beam rifle is that it could only be fired 16 times before running out of energy.


 * NF GMG-Type.37/100mm Machine Gun
 * The standard armament for Federation mobile suit ground forces, the Type 37 is an open-bolt, gas-operated, magazine-fed, mobile suit handheld machine gun. It fires a 100x450 millimeter round at a rate of 500 rounds per minute and is loaded with a 20-round box magazine. Features include a folding stock and swivel forward hand grip. Maximum effective range of 1.5 kilometers.


 * BLASH HB-L-03/N-STD Hyper Bazooka
 * Technically a large rocket launcher, it could fire several 380mm missiles to strike targets at long range. No mass-production MS's armor is able to stop this weapon. While very powerful, it has a slow rate of fire and a fairly little amount of ammunition. Most often used to take out slow, heavily armored targets.


 * YHI 6ML-79MM 6-tube Missile Launcher
 * The missile launcher consists of the base receiver that has all the targeting equipment and the trigger unit. Up to three two-tube missile packs may be loaded onto the receiver. Each tube contains one missile, which after being fired, is wire-guided to the target. The missile packs may be swapped out in the field. Most often used to take out slow, heavily armored targets.


 * 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.


 * NFHI*EPHB-type.Doc-04/380mm Hyper Bazooka
 * The ground-type hyper bazooka fires a 380x1900 millimeter HEDP rocket at ranges up to 2.5 kilometers. It is loaded with a 5-round box magazine with one round pre-loaded into the chamber.


 * Prototype Beam Rifle
 * An experimental beam weapon used exclusively by the White Dingo Team. It has much higher output than a beam spray gun, and also longer firing distance.


 * FADEGEL RGM-M-Sh-003 Shield
 * A basic arm-mounted defense armament for many Federation mobile suits. The shield is a thick sheet of armor designed to take severe punishment that would normally destroy a mobile suit. Since the introduction of beam weaponry, shields have been treated with an anti-beam coating allowing it to withstand several beam shots before the coating wears off. Typically physical shields can only take so much damage before they succumb to the pressure and break.


 * RGM*S-Sh-WF/S-00109 Shield
 * Beside the standard model, the GM is capable of mounting on either of its forearms a smaller RGM*S-Sh-WF/S-00109 Shield. Mount latch and joint/pivot mount position retracted for protection or extended for slashing or punching attacks. Can be thrust into the ground and used as an elevated weapon firing position. Features include top carrying handle and shield claw.

Special Equipment & Features

 * Bazooka Rack
 * An optional weapon mount installed on the right side of the backpack for storing the BLASH HB-L-03/N-STD Hyper Bazooka when it is not in use.


 * Parachute Pack
 * An optional backpack equipment for paradrop missions from the Medea Transport Plane. It contains three parachutes and four thrusters to help in making a safe descent to the ground, once touchdown had been accomplished the backpack would be ejected so as to not hinder the Mobile Suit in combat.


 * Corvette Booster

History
At the onset of the One Year War, the Earth Federation did not take the mobile suit threat seriously- this was until the Principality of Zeon military completely outmaneuvered and decimated the Earth Federation Space Force with their MS-06 Zaku II. As Zeon forces laid siege on Earth, the Federation developed several prototype mobile suits, the most notable being the RX-78-2 Gundam, and from the Gundam came the Earth Federation's first mass production mobile suit: the RGM-79 GM, which was more agile and faster than the Zeon's Zaku II in space and on earth. The GM would serve as the Federation's primary mobile suit throughout the war, supported by the RB-79 Ball mobile pod, and later serve as the basis of the Earth Federation's mobile suits for over fifteen years.

To compensate for Zeon's initially being more experienced in mobile suit warfare, the Federation started with the 'quantity over quality' approach. By the time of the GM's true introduction at the Battle of Jaburo, the Zeon forces had already started production of the MS-09B Dom, a mobile suit that performed slightly better than the GM but not appreciably more-survivable or deadlier against the GM's weaponry. When the war went back into space, the GM actually outperformed the MS-09R Rick Doms in most ways and were outperformed later by the MS-14 Gelgoogs; unfortunately for Zeon, the Rick Doms and Gelgoogs would be held up by the bickering Zabi family politics and the equally-serious ineptitude of high-level Zeon commanders preoccupied with bringing down the White Base and the Gundam. In the end, the Rick Dom was produced in too few numbers and the Gelgoog wouldn't be deployed until the last two weeks of the war.

By the time the Gelgoogs entered service, they were piloted mostly by novice pilots and fresh recruits against a superior number of battle-hardened Federation counterparts, a situation that also plagued the surviving Zaku IIs and even the MS-05B Zaku I that were forced to soldier on due to the scarcity of new mobile suits. It is then when Federation victory became all but guaranteed.

The GM line was first established through the RGM-79［E］ GM Early Type, a prototype version that would set the basics for the GM. The basic GM frame would later be updated and upgraded into the RMS-179 GM II during the mid-UC 0080s and would become one of the most heavily modified mobile suits, spawning many variants until finally being superseded by the RGM-89 Jegan in the UC 0090s.

Variants

 * RGM-79DR GM Underground Type
 * RGM-79 GM (Thunderbolt Ver.)
 * RGM-79D GM Cold Climate Type
 * RGM-79F Land Combat Type GM
 * RGM-79L GM Light Armor
 * RGM-79SC GM Sniper Custom
 * RGM-79U GM Sloep
 * RGM-79V GM Night Seeker
 * Gefangener GM

Notes & Trivia

 * It has never been explicitly stated in any official material what "GM" is an abbreviation of, though "Gundam Mass-produced" and "General Model" are popular theories. Another possible term in Japanese would be "Gundam Modoki (ガンダムもどき)" or "Gundam-lookalike"
 * Also, the pronunciation of the GM's designation as "jim" and not "jee-em" is possibly a parallel of sorts to the Zaku's alleged derivative Japanese term "zako (雑魚)". In the GM's case, the term might be "jimi (地味)" meaning plain/simple, possibly referring to the overall design that is simple (and cheap) compared to the RX-78-2 Gundam.
 * RGM-79 "GM" [Later Type], the Hajime Katoki-redesigned RGM-79 GM featured in Model Graphix's "Sentinel 0079" mecha design series, would later be served as the basis for RGM-79C GM Type C featured in Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory OVA.
 * The GM's creation and exploits serves as another element of the first Gundam series that parallels World War II history: it is the equivalent of the American M-4 Sherman and Soviet T-34; both the Sherman and T-34 were mass produced in the tens of thousands, easily overwhelming their enemy counterparts despite their quality shortcomings. Both of them are also technologically superior to their immediate mass produced enemy counterparts (i.e. Panzer III and IV for real life/World War II, and the MS-05 Zaku I and MS-06 Zaku II for Mobile Suit Gundam) However, it should be noted that unlike the GM, the M-4 Sherman and T-34 lacked the firepower to mission-kill their more advanced adversaries (Tiger I, Panther, Tiger II) in one shot whereas the GM's beam spray gun could destroy a Gelgoog or Dom in one shot. The aforementioned machines could destroy the GM in one or two shots as well.
 * In SD Gundam series, GM is usually depicted as the most numerous mobile suit, filling the role of both civilians and foot soldiers of protagonist's side.