Musai-Class Light Cruiser

"Musai"-Class Light Cruiser
Fast Facts
Ship Type	Light Cruiser
Class:	"Musai"
Launched:	July U.C. 0075
Class Fate:	Inactive as of U.C. 0100
General Characteristics
Displacement:	26,200 tons
Length:	234 meters
Width:	98.4 meters
Height:	79.4 meters
Armament:	("Original") 2-barrel mega particle cannon turrets x3 [Later models refitted with only 2 turrets] , large missile launchers x2, small missile launchers x10 ("Late Production Type") 2-barrel mega particle cannon turrets x 5, 2-barrel 120mm machine guns x 10, missile launchers x 10 ("Final Production Type") 2-barrel mega particle cannon turrets x2
Mobile Suit Complement: (Musai/Komusai)	Original: 3/2 Original Refit: Standard MS- 4/2, Heavy MS- 2/1 Final Production Type: Standard MS- 4/2, Heavy MS- 2/1 Later Production Heavy MS- 4/1
Ships of the Line:	Original:"Camel, Falmel, Kuwamel, Swamel, Tokmel, Primus, Baromel, Remul, Brave" Final Type: "Siegfried, Valkyrie" Late Type: "Peer Gynt, Nibelung"

In the Gundam (Universal Century) fictional universe, the Principality of Zeon "Musai"-Class Light Cruiser was the first warship designed to carry mobile suits. It carried a "Komusai" landing capsule that could (and often did) carry additional mobile suits. There were several models of the "Musai" produced during the war:

Original "Musai"-Class Light Cruiser

The original "Musai"-Class Light Cruiser variant carried five MS-05 Zaku Is or MS-06 Zaku IIs mobile suits and supported them with a battery of three mega particle cannon turrets. This is the version seen most frequently during the One Year War. Earth Federation soldiers referred to this style of carrying as "three in the back and two under the hood." Using the Komusai pod bays to carry operational mobile suits (rather than for their initial purpose of carrying the mobile suits to the surface of the Earth) brought the mobile suit carrying capacity of the Musai up almost to the same standard as the much larger EFSF "Pegasus"-Class Assault Carrier. The standard "Musai" had three mobile suit catapults mounted on the upper port, upper starboard and lower faces of its hexagonal mobile suit hangar. Char Aznable commanded a modified "Musai" I with a helmet-shaped command bridge (the , when the Federal Forces deployed their own Mobile Suits.

Towards the end of the One Year War, however, the "Musai" had to be reorganized, and the Zeon engineers remodeled the three-turret based cruisers into a two-turret model. This was because the Zeon forces were mostly now using the far more efficient MS-09R Rick Dom mobile suit. This caused a problem though for the standard "Musai" model: The Rick Dom were far bulkier, making it impossible to fit three of the units inside the already cramped hangar. By remodeling the hangar and removing one of the mega beam cannon turrets, the hangar could hold two of the new "heavy" type Dom mobile suit units, while the Komusai could hold one of the "heavy" type mobile suits. However, the two turret models could also now hold four "standard" type Zaku IIs. Despite not being able to carry the Rick Dom mobile suits, this didn't cancel the three-turret variant as they (and the then-outdated Zaku II) still continued service until the end of the war at A Baoa Qu.

By U.C. 0087, most of the surviving original "Musai"-Class Light Cruisers had been upgraded into the "Musai Kai"-Class Light Cruisers, by the Zeon forces at the mobile asteroid Axis. However, little is known of this upgraded "Musai" type. It uses the three turret design of the original "Musai" and the original Komusai shuttle. However, it now mounted two additional single turrets for additional firepower and had better engines. It is unknown how many MS they could carry, but it can easily be said that they were capable of carrying at least five of the new Gaza-C Mobile suits: three in the hangar and two on its Komusai shuttle.

"Musai"-Class Light Cruiser - Late Production Type

The "Musai"-Class Light Cruiser Late Production Type (sometimes referred to as the M-type) was a "considerable" upgrade that combined the original's firepower with refit's mobile suit complement and acceleration - and as an additional bonus, the Late Production "Musai"'s drastically widened hull and improved launch facilities could handle four of the much larger Rick Doms or MS-14 Gelgoogs, as compared to the refitted original "Musai" and the Final Production Type's carrying capacity of just two. The Late Production Types were also the first in the "Musai" line to feature anti-air and anti-mobile suit machine gun turret defenses. However, only a few "Musai" Late Production Types were built, at least twenty-eight, before operational setbacks forced the Zeon naval forces to switch to the less capable but less expensive and easier to construct refit of the first "Musai"-Class design. Most of the Late-Type ships fled with the Delaz Fleet at the end of the One Year War and returned (and eventually sunk) during Operation Stardust.

"Musai"-Class Light Cruiser - Final Production Type

The "Musai"-Class Final Production Type had an improved hull design and upgraded engines. This rare version was a subtype ship design of the original "Musai" Light Cruiser that was in production during November and December, as resource restrictions forced the Principality of Zeon to eliminate its ambitious plan of replacing all the original, refitted originals, and the only slightly improved Final Production Type "Musai" designs with the drastically upgraded Late Production ships. The Final Production "Musai" was cheap to mass produce and yet effective in task of making both sides naval forces more even in numbers. It had two catapults in its mobile suit hangars. While some of the ships carried groups of four MS-06F Zaku IIs, other ships carried two of the heavier MS-09R Rick Doms or MS-14 Gelgoogs mobile suits. Like its One Year War cousin, this "Musai" type does not have any anti-aircraft/anti-mobile suit defense.

Fate of the "Musai"

The "Musai"s of all variants acquitted themselves well in the One Year War and afterwards during Operation Stardust. Examples of the "Musai" continued to fly in the postwar Republic of Zeon fleet until Zeon rejoined the Earth Federation in U.C. 0099. Afterwards, all remaining ships were mothballed in U.C. 0100 and were sold and scrapped after that, with the last ship leaving for the breakers by U.C. 0120.

Trivia

: The "Musai" was seen in SD Gundam Force. It was quite smaller, was called the Magna Musai and featured 3x Double beam guns and italso featured four most likely anti-air guns where the docking tubes of the original "Musai" were.

: The name "Musai" is similar to that of the Japanese battleship Musashi.

ee also

*Mobile Suit
*List of Mobile Suits
*Minovsky Physics

External links

* [http://www.mahq.net MAHQ]
* [http://www.geocities.com/gundam_uc0079/index.html The World-Wide Gundam Informational Network]
* [http://www.geocities.com/gundamships/Mainpage.html Gundam Naval Museum]
* [http://side7.gundam.com/rgz/info/uc_ship.html Library of Londonion (ship names & fates)]
* [http://alt-world.com/alt-world/gundambattlesystem/MS_reference/index.html Gundam Reference Data]