G Project

The "G Project" is a Mobile Suit development project in the Cosmic Era timeline, spearheaded by the Earth Alliance. Its primary objective initially was to develop five state-of-the-art new-generation prototype mobile suits, which would allow the Alliance to eliminate the current advantage held by ZAFT's mobile suits.

Mobile Suits

Earth Alliance/OMNI Enforcer Suits

The Earth Alliance prototype mobile suits developed under the G-Project bore the prefixing designation "GAT-X" (Gressorial Armament Tactical - eXperimental), occasionally heard or referred to as "G-Weapons". Later production-model mobile suits derived from the prototypes retained only the "GAT-" prefix designation.

First Generation: Heliopolis

The first set of prototype mobile suits were jointly developed by the Alliance and Orb's Morgenroete, Inc. at the Orb space colony Heliopolis. Of the five prototypes developed, four were captured by ZAFT.

• GAT-X102 Duel Gundam
• GAT-X103 Buster Gundam
• GAT-X105 Strike Gundam
• GAT-X207 Blitz Gundam
• GAT-X303 Aegis Gundam

Second Generation: Atlantic Federation

The second set of prototype mobile suits developed under the G-Project was developed solely by the Atlantic Federation.

• GAT-X131 Calamity Gundam
• GAT-X252 Forbidden Gundam
• GAT-X370 Raider Gundam

Orb Union Suits

While assisting the Earth Alliance in construction of the first-generation "G-Weapons", Morgenroete secretly diverted many of the technologies provided by the Alliance into the creation of their own mobile suit series: the "MBF-P" (Main Battle Figure - Prototype) "Astray" series. Data and feedback obtained from the prototype suits were later used in the development of the mass-produced MBF-M1 Astray. As development of the prototype Astrays and M1 Astray occurred in parallel, both sets of MS were completed in January of CE 71.

• MBF-P01 Astray Gold Frame
• MBF-P02 Astray Red Frame
• MBF-P03 Astray Blue Frame
• MBF-P04 Astray Green Frame
• MBF-P05 Gundam Astray Unit 5 (which was later modified into MBF-P05LM Gundam Astray Mirage Frame)

Ships

Two vessels were developed in conjunction with the G-Project mobile suits: A battleship heavily based on Morgenroete's Izumo-class designed to carry the mobile suits - the Archangel; and a tender designed to resupply and support both the battleship and its mobile suits - the Cornelius-class. A total of two Archangel-class ships were built, while the exact number of built Cornelius-class tenders is not known: its speculated at least three to five tenders were built, including one salvaged from Heliopolis and later christened by the Junk Guild as the ReHOME.

• Archangel-class assault ship
• Cornelius-class tender

Technology

As part of the project, several new technologies were developed and incorporated to give the new prototype suits an advantage against ZAFT's mainstay ZGMF-1017 GINN mobile suit series. The most important new technology invented was the compacted beam weaponry. Prior to the project, beam weapons were only used on warships; however, the G Project produced compacted beam weapons so that they could be used freely by mobile suits, in the form of both Beam Rifles (for long range attacks) and Beam Sabers (for close combat). For defense, a new MS armor-type was invented to grant the suits enhanced protection against physical attacks - Phase Shift Armor. This was an advantage since ZAFT mobile suits at the time mostly used projectile or shell firing weapons, and physical bladed swords.

In addition to the technologies uniformly given, four of the five first-generation G-Weapons were each equipped with a trait unique to that suit: the GAT-X102 Duel was the exception, as it was meant to be the development base for the other four units. The GAT-X103 Buster was customized as a ranged attack unit and can combine its gun launcher and high-energy rifle a stronger weapon depending on the configuration used. The GAT-X303 Aegis sports a X300 transformable frame, giving the Aegis the ability to switch between a MS-mode and a MA-mode. The GAT-X207 Blitz was installed with a more unusual piece of technology - Mirage Colloid technology - which the Blitz used as a particle cloaking mechanism. Finally, the GAT-X105 Strike, though structurally similar to the Duel, incorporates hardpoints for a newly created innovation in equipment technology - Striker Packs - granting the Strike the ability to adapt various equipment for different combat situations.

History

When ZAFT first rolled out their mobile suits, they proved to be a powerful opponent for the Earth Alliance' TS-MA2 Moebius Mobile Armors. First-generation mobile suits were only piloted by Coordinators as the controls were too complex for Naturals. As a result, the Atlantic Federation collaborated with the Orb Union's Morgenroete, Inc., with the goal to develop mobile suits that could be piloted by Naturals. At first, Uzumi Nara Athha rejected the offer. However, Rondo Mina Sahaku accepted, believing that by cooperating with the Alliance, Orb can steal their technology for themselves and create its own advanced mobile suits.

The G Project began in C.E. 69 under the aegis of Admiral Duane Halberton to produce "G-Weapons", which reached fruition in C.E. 71. In this year, the first five prototype Earth Alliance mobile suits were secretly rolled out at the Orb-controlled space colony Heliopolis. These prototype mobile suits eventually became known collectively as "Gundams", named after the acronym for their mobile operating system - General Unilateral Neuro - Link Dispersive Automatic Maneuver. As part of the project, a new series of warships was created and outfitted with enhanced weaponry and technology to carry these new suits. The result was the Archangel-class assault ship, modeled after Orb's Izumo-classs.

Before the new suits could be fielded, ZAFT attacked Heliopolis on January 25, C.E. 71, and stole four of the five mobile suits. Later, both ZAFT and the Alliance used the technologies in these suits to produce newer and more powerful prototype and mass-production mobile suits. Earth Alliance mobile suits derived from the G-Weapons were all designated "GAT-01" with a suffix to indicate which suit they were developed from: "A" or no suffix designates mobile suits derived from the Strike; "D" designates mobile suits derived from the Duel; and "E" designates mobile suits derived from the Buster.

Using data obtained from the Alliance, Orb created its own prototype mobile suits: the MBF-P series, later known as the Astrays. These mobile suits were built at the same time as the five first-generation G-Weapons, and are equipped with beam rifles and beam sabers based on Alliance designs. However, Morgenroete was unable to obtain the technology behind Phase Shift Armor, so they are instead armored with lightweight foaming metal. Simultaneously, development of Orb's mass production mobile suit also occurred on Earth, and was based on data as well as feedback from these prototypes. 

Trivia

• The G Project is the Cosmic Era counterpart to the Universal Century's Project V, which was a similar project of the Earth Federation.
• Units under the X100 series (Strike, Duel, Buster, and Calamity) were designed around versatility and specialized role. Units under the X200 series (Blitz and Forbidden) were designed around special equipment system, such as Mirage Colloid. Units under the X300 series (Aegis and Raider) were designed around a transformable frame.