MBF-P03 Gundam Astray Blue Frame

The MBF-P03 Gundam Astray Blue Frame is a Mobile Suit in the manga series Gundam SEED Astray and the photonovel Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray B  . It is piloted by Gai Murakumo.

Technology and Combat Characteristics
The MBF-P03 Astray Blue Frame is a prototype combat mobile suit developed using stolen data from the Earth Alliance's G Project. Most of the technology from the G Project was successfully copied with the exception of Phase Shift armor. In its place the Astrays' designers made the machines out of a lighter foaming metal compound and were built with minimal armor over the frame. This made the Astray mobile suits lighter and faster than their G Project counterparts.

Originally, the Astray Blue Frame was armed with the standard armament of the other prototype Astray suits. These weapons include two head-mounted "Igelstellung" 75mm multi-barrel CIWS, two back-mounted beam sabers for close combat, a Type 71 beam rifle, and a single physical shield. However its mercenary pilot used his resources to outfit the Astray Blue Frame with a wide variety of weapons to suit multiple combat situations. These additional weapons include a GINN's D-Type anti-fortress weapons, combat knives, and torpedoes.

Armaments

 * "Igelstellung" 75mm Multi-Barrel CIWS


 * Beam Saber


 * Type 71 Beam Rifle


 * Shield


 * 8-barrel Missile Launcher


 * M68 "Pardus" 3-Barrel Missile Launcher


 * Combat Knife


 * M68 "Cattus" 500mm Recoilless Rifle


 * Underwater Rifle

Special equipments and form
Constructed using information from the uploaded equipment data within Blue Frame. It greatly increases Blue Frame’s communication, sensing capability and information processing power. On the flipside, the various detectors are very energy draining and processing of the complex data place a heavy burden on the OS. The Sensor unit contains a dedicated computer to process these data.
 * Optional sensor unit

This booster was used when Serpent Tail was employed to recover data from a high speed spaceship that lost control during testing. It is unknown if the booster is built from data within the Blue Frame.
 * Optional high speed booster

For aquatic mission, Gai can equip Blue Frame with a "Scale System" armour. With these parts, Blue Frame has higher underwater mobility than ZAFT's aquatic MS. This equipment was developed by Morgenroete Inc under Erica's command and serve as payment for employing Gai to complete certain missions. The "Scale System" armour can also serve as makeshift shield against phonon maser. The equipment proved itself in battle on Giga-Float against Gold Frame, in which Gai fought off Rondo Gina to protect the installation.
 * Optional Scale System

As a mercenary, Gai often gets himself into lopsided MS battle, thus he designed a "Full Weapon" form for Blue Frame in which the MS is loaded with multiple bazookas and missile launchers taken from ZAFT. These equipments do not use much energy and allows Gai to fight multiple enemies easily. He used this form when he was guarding the Eurasian Confederacy's Artemis space fortress.
 * Full Weapon Form

History
The Orb Union's Morgenroete corporation built five Astray prototype mobile suits at Heliopolis, the MBF-P01 Astray Gold Frame, MBF-P02 Astray Red Frame, MBF-P03 Astray Blue Frame, MBF-P04 Astray Green Frame and MBF-P05, which were based on the five G Project Gundams that they assisted the Earth Alliance's Atlantic Federation in creating. They successfully copied the EA's beam rifle and saber technology, but Morgenroete did not have access to the Phase Shift armor design, and compensated by making the Gundam Astray units lighter and more agile than their EA counterparts. Unlike Gold Frame, Blue Frame was fitted with only Orb hand plugs, and thus could not use Earth Alliance weapons.

On January 25, CE 71, ZAFT's attack on Heliopolis to steal the Alliance Gundams also unknowingly interrupted the Astray project. In order hide their progress, Orb's officials decided to destroy the Astray lab. Coordinator Rondo Gina Sahaku, an Orb nobleman, disagreed and attempted to save the save the three suits, Gold Frame, Red Frame and Blue Frame, that were assembled. He ordered one of his subordinate to split all the Astray data among the three MS and Blue Frame was uploaded with specifications for a variety of optional weapons and equipment. Blue Frame was soon located by Junk Guild technician Lowe Guele, who found himself having to use it to protect himself from Coordinator mercenary pilot Gai Murakumo of the Serpent Tail company, who had been hired to eliminate all evidence of the Astray program. Over the course of the conflict, Lowe abandoned the Blue Frame in a ploy to disable Gai's Mobile Armor. When the Serpent Tail were seemingly double-crossed by their employer (having seen the suits, Gai himself had become evidence of their existence), Gai commandeered the empty Blue Frame to defeat them, and after Lowe confronted him in Red Frame, Gai decided to leave the Junk Techs alone. Gai kept Blue Frame for his own use, and the two Astray pilots encountered one another several more times, sometimes as allies, sometimes as enemy and they soon became friends.

Blue Frame was later severely damaged in battle against rogue "Combat Coordinator" Eleven Socius and Seven Socius and their GAT-01D Long Dagger, and was subsequently upgraded into MBF-P03 Gundam Astray Blue Frame Second L.