ZAFT

ZAFT (Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty) is a military organization in the Cosmic Era timeline.

Overview
ZAFT is a military organization and the official military of the PLANT colonies. Unlike the Earth Alliance' OMNI Enforcer, ZAFT is a militia made up of civilian volunteers and thus has no formal rank structure. Instead the "ranks" of its members are distinguished by the colors of the uniforms, while people in leading positions are referred to as "commander" and "captain." Most ZAFT forces are organized into independent teams which are named after their commanders. Since nearly all ZAFT members are Coordinators, they are able to fight the numerically superior EA forces on equal grounds, thanks to their superior physical and mental abilities. ZAFT is controlled by the PLANT Supreme Council, with its members reporting directly to the chairman of the National Defense Committee.

Ranks
Captain: Title, with which officers in charge of a particular military vessel, such as battleships, land carriers, or submarines, are addressed with.

Commander: Title given to people who are in charge of one of ZAFT's teams, which are frequently formed, dissolved, and rearranged. The team is identified by the name of its leader, hence "LeCreuset-team", "Zala-team", and "Joule-team". A commander will usually be given control of one or more vessels, whether space, land, or sea-based, and/or a number of mobile suits. He or she will be responsible for developing the appropriate strategies to use those resources to carry out the tasks assigned to him or her by the chairman or high-ranked military officers.

Uniforms
As stated above, military achievements and ranks of individual persons are shown by the color of their uniforms.

Green: Worn by common soldiers, technicians, or mobile suit pilots. Olive: Worn by soldiers in ground combat situations. Bright Green: Worn by mechanics only. Red: Worn by elite soldiers or mobile suit pilots, typically the top graduates from ZAFT's academy. Although they are respected, soldiers who wear red do not necessarily have higher positions than their green-clad comrades. In many respects though, Reds fill the same function as noncomissioned officers in a traditional military. While Lunamaria Hawke wears a pink miniskirt, it seems to be her custom, as other female elites like Shiho Hahnenfuss and Riika Sheder wear uniforms indentical to male ones. Black: Worn by the vast majority of officers, including most ship captains. This is also the color worn by the ZAFT's military bureaucracy. White: Worn only by those who have distinguished themselves with considerable military achievements. Officers who wear this uniform were often once ZAFT Reds and now lead elite teams or command important military vessels. This is a distinction similar to how Generals have different star ratings, but is in its own way unique. Purple: General/Member of the PLANT Supreme Council, or space navy task force commanders, or officers otherwise above black-garbed ship captains and garrison commanders. Custom Color Uniforms: Anyone in the ZAFT army that proves him or herself in combat are allowed to have a custom colored pilot uniform. These pilots have no distinct rank but are usually better than their counter-parts. For example, Rey wore a white pilot suit, however he was not above the command of Talia and still had to follow commands like regular green uniform soldiers. Another example is Andrew "Andy" Waltfeld. He was known as the Desert Tiger, and wore a special tiger-stripped Orange pilot suit while fellow submarine commander Marco wore the regular green uniform. Andy was above the command of most other commanders and generals at the time. Usually, the custom uniforms also came with a custom suit. Heine had an orange coloured ZAKU Phantom and GOUF Ignited to match his pilot suit, Lunamaria remained with her Red uniform and had her ZAKU repainted in the same color and hue. Andy had a special BuCUE armed with fangs and claws made to match his "Tiger" outfit and an orange colored LaGOWE, complete with Beam "Fangs" and claws. Both Yzak and Rey had a Purple-ish white pilot suit and a identically colored GOUF and ZAKU Phantom respectively. Nearly all FAITH members have their own custom colored suits (both Pilot and Mobile Suit). Typically, pilots who wear green or red uniforms wear the matching color of pilot suit.

FAITH
FAITH (Fast Acting Intergrate Tactical Headquarters) is an elite special forces unit of ZAFT personnel that have remarkable war records and certain character traits. They are appointed by the PLANT council or the Chairman, only to whom they are answerable to. FAITH members operate outside the regular command structure of ZAFT and are allowed to plan operations and give orders on the battlefield as they see fit. FAITH members wear badges resembling a white wing emerging from a golden elliptical orb.

Known members of FAITH include; Heine Westenfluss, Athrun Zala, Talia Gladys, Shinn Asuka, Rey Za Burrel and Henri Eugenie.

Technology
ZAFT has over time developed several unique and powerful technologies, which gave them advantage over the EA forces. They also have their own weapons producers, which include Martius Arsenals and Maius Military Industries.

Mobile Suits
ZAFT was the first military force to develop and use mobile suits, with the first mass-produced mobile suit being the ZGMF-1017 GINN. This suit gave ZAFT forces a tactical advantage over the EA forces, which used the outdated TS-MA2 Moebius mobile armors. Thanks to this fact, ZAFT was able to fight the numerical superior EA forces to a standstill, while also conquering portions of Earth, thanks to new MS developed for use in Earth's different terrains, like underwater, desert or airbased MS. While ZAFT MS were at first only equipped with shell-firing weapons and conventional missiles, they soon created beam weaponry after their forces were able to steal four prototype mobile suits developed by the Atlantic Federation. Thanks to this technology, ZAFT created advanced new mobile suits like their first series of Gundam-type suits and the ZGMF-600 GuAIZ MS.

After the first Bloody Valentine War, ZAFT continued to create new and advanced mobile suits, which was especially shown in their creation of the Second Generation Gundam or the "New Millennium" series. They also developed the Deuterion Beam Energy Transfer System, a new type of energy distribution technology to recharge MS batteries.

Vessels
ZAFT over time developed several different types of vessels to use in space and on Earth. Such vessels include Nazca-class and Laurasia-class warships in space, Lesseps-class and Petrie-class vessels on land, and Vosgulov-class submarines at sea. ZAFT also created the large Gondwana-class carrier, the largest spaceship in the Earth Sphere as well as the advanced byttleship Minerva, which was capable of fighting the EA's Archangel-class on equal terms.

Nuclear technology
ZAFT has consistently proven itself to be on the cutting edge of nuclear technology, producing the Neutron Jammer, the Neutron Jammer Canceller, and the Neutron Stampeder to deal with nuclear weaponry. Other nuclear technology include nuclear reactors for their mobile suits, granting them virtually unlimited operation time and the more advanced Hyper-Deuterion Nuclear Reactor. The most powerful nuclear technology created by ZAFT was GENESIS, a huge gamma-ray cannon, capable of annihilating a whole fleet or rendering a planet uninhabitable. Over time, three versions of this superweapon were developed.

History
The organization which would one day become ZAFT was originally formed as the political alliance known as the Zodiac Alliance to peacefully fight for the rights and independence of Coordinators. It was created in CE 50 by Patrick Zala and Siegel Clyne but their organization was supressed by the nations controlling PLANT at that time, forcing the group to go underground.

ZAFT fights the Earth Alliance to a standstill in the Bloody Valentine War of Cosmic Era 70-71. During mid CE 71 Patrick Zala, who blames all Naturals for the death of his wife in the Bloody Valentine Incident, becomes leader of not only ZAFT but also of PLANT and effectively removes the moderate faction of the PLANT Supreme Council. Zala plans to wipe out all human life on Earth, eliminating, he believes, Naturals who are the cause of all warfare and establish Coordinators as the master race, a "new humanity".

Following the Junius Seven colony drop disaster, the Earth Alliance demands that ZAFT demilitarize and its government disperse; the obvious refusal results in the second war between ZAFT and Earth in four years. Earth support for ZAFT greatly increased after PLANT Chairman Gilbert Dullindal's famous anti-Logos/Blue Cosmos speech that was broadcast throughout the PLANTS and Earth. Even though ZAFT and the Three Ship Alliance joined forces and fought together against Earth Alliance forces, they still remain enemies.

Trivia
The name "ZAFT" follows in the rather curious Gundam tradition of naming the space-colony military with a 'Z' (Zeon, from early Universal Century, and the Zanscare Empire of Victory Gundam) or 'Zodiac' within its acronym (such as Gundam Wing's OZ/Order of Zodiac).