MSK-008 Dijeh

The MSK-008 Dijeh is a mobile suit from Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. The unit was piloted by Amuro Ray.

Technology & Combat Characteristics
This unit is quite similar to the successful RMS-099 Rick Dias in terms of performance. Like the Rick Dias, many of the engineers who developed the Dijeh were former Zeon mobile suit manufacturer employees, and its design does incorporate many Zeon-style features, such as mono-eye sensors. One of its most notable visible features are the large radiator fins mounted on its back, which also serve to give the Dijeh high performance during atmospheric flight. To help keep its cost down due to Karaba's limited resources, it employed the beam rifle used by the AEUG's MSN-00100 Hyaku Shiki, as well as the RMS-099 Rick Dias' clay bazooka. For close combat, the Dijeh was armed with a beam naginata ("naginata" is Japanese for "long-handled sword"). The Dijeh prototype was assigned to Karaba's top ace pilot, Amuro Ray, who would use his new mobile suit quite well during their war against the corrupt Titans in U.C. 0087.

Armaments

 * 60mm Vulcan Guns
 * Dijeh has a pair of fire linked vulcans guns on its head. These head mounted shell firing weapons have a high-rate of fire, but have little power and are generally ineffective against mobile suits; however, the vulcan gun 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 Naginata
 * Just like Zeon's MS-14A Gelgoog, the Dijeh carries a twin beam sword, sometimes referred to as a "Beam Naginata". The weapon features a longer than normal handle and a beam emitter at both ends allowing the weapon to create two beam blades simultaneously. This allows the Dijeh to perform attacks that mobile suits equipped with standard beam sabers cannot, on the other hand the weapon is more dangerous as the pilot must make sure not to accidentally strike his own mobile suit when attacking as the blades face opposite directions. When not in use the twin beam sword is stored in a recharge rack on the back of the waist.


 * BR-M-87 Beam Rifle
 * The standard ranged armament of many mobile suits is the beam rifle. The particle beam fired from a rifle can penetrate almost any armor that has not been treated with specific counter-measures. The Dijeh carried the same model of Beam Rifle as the Hyaku Shiki, with a power rating of 2.8 MW and powered by rechargeable energy cap. It has a retractable hook on top of the barrel for mounting onto the suit's backpack when not in use.


 * AE/ZIM.C-BAZ-531 300mm Clay Bazooka
 * The Dijeh was equipped with the same model of Clay Bazooka used by Rick Dias and Hyaku Shiki. It was originally designed to fire adhesive rounds which immobilize enemy machines rather than destroying them outright. However, it could also be loaded with other types of ammunition, including conventional explosive round as well as pellet shot round. The Clay Bazooka has 1 round in its chamber with 7 more rounds in a reloadable magazine. A retractable hook is present on top of the bazooka's barrel for mounting onto the suit's backpack when not in use.


 * Hyper Mega Launcher
 * The same weapon used by the MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam which is the most powerful class of beam weapon used by mobile suits. The mega launcher is a large mega particle cannon with firepower exceeding that of a warship's guns, which draws its power from a built-in thermonuclear reactor.

History
The Dijeh is a mobile suit developed by Karaba, the earthbound variant of the AEUG. Because Karaba was impressed by the AEUG’s RMS-099 Rick Dias the Dijeh’s design was based on the Rick Dias, and its performance also was quite similar. Also because many of the engineers of the Dijeh were former Principality of Zeon members, they used many design features of Zeon mobile suits, like the mono-eye sensor. A special design feature of the Dijeh were its two radiator fins mounted on the back. Also because Karaba didn’t have many resources, the suit’s weapons came from other suits like the MSN-00100 Hyaku Shiki’s beam rifle or the clay bazooka of the Rick Dias. For close combat the suit featured a beam naginata. The prototype of the Dijeh was assigned to One Year War veteran and Karaba ace pilot Amuro Ray who used his suit during the Gryps Conflict. The Dijeh's operating data would be used to aid in the development of the MSA-099-2 Rick Dias II.

A variant known as SE-DJ-1R Dijeh SE-R also exists, which is a highly powerful variant with massively increased performance. This rarely seen powerful mobile suit is featured as a secret unit in several games of the Super Robot Wars series.

Variants

 * MSK-008 Dijeh (Char Aznable Custom)
 * SE-DJ-1R Dijeh SE-R
 * MS-110 Chaika

Notes and Trivia

 * In the Robot Damashii (Ka Signature) release of Dijeh action figure, a FXA-03M2 Hyper Mega Launcher (from MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam) was included as an original equipment.