List of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED technology

This article deals with technology from the Cosmic Era timeline of the Gundam fictional universe metaseries.

G Project
The G Project was the Earth Alliance's crash program to develop mobile suits that could be piloted by Naturals. First-generation mobile suits were too complex for Naturals to control, and could only be piloted by Coordinators. The G project began in Cosmic Era year 69 under the aegis of Admiral Lewis Halberton to produce G Weapons and reached fruition in 71. The G mobile suits eventually became known collectively as "Gundams," after the acronym for their mobile operating system - General Unilateral Neuro - Link Dispersive Automatic Maneuver.

The five mobile suits developed under the G Project were:
 * GAT-X102 Duel
 * GAT-X103 Buster
 * GAT-X105 Strike
 * GAT-X207 Blitz
 * GAT-X303 Aegis

Several later mobile suits were derived from the G Project, 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 GAT-X105 Strike Gundam, "D" designates mobile suits derived from the GAT-X102 Duel Gundam, and "E" designates mobile suits derived from the GAT-X103 Buster Gundam.

See Cosmic Era Mobile Units for detailed information about all the produced units.



DRAGOON System
The DRAGOON (Disconnected Rapid Armament Group Overlook Operation Network) system is a control system developed by ZAFT to guide remote weapons, based on the Mirage Colloid Virus Spreader used by the NMS-X07PO Gel Finieto. The DRAGOON uses Quantum Communication transmitted through Mirage Colloid particles to send signals to weapon pods to move them around without the awkward wire-guidance used in mobile armors such as the TS-MA2mod.00 Moebius Zero, or the Striker Pack AQM/E-X04 Gunbarrel Striker. The original system was first tested in the YMF-X000A Dreadnought, tested by ZAFT pilot Courtney Hieronimus and then later civilian Prayer Reverie. The most prominent unit using the DRAGOON system is the prototype unit ZGMF-X13A Providence, piloted by ZAFT ace Rau Le Creuset during the Second Battle of Jachin Due.

An alternate version of the DRAGOON system was developed by Earth Alliance's Azrael Financial Group and utilized in their prototype TSX-MA717/ZD Pergrande mobile armor. This version required three pilots, and didn't require a pilot with spatial awareness; instead, the computer maneuvered the pods using the X, Y, and Z coordinates from the pilots. These pods mounted a beam cannon and a beam gun, which made it much more powerful than the regular DRAGOON system mobile suits. The Pergrande was destroyed during testing by ace pilot Gai Murakumo of the Serpent Tail mercenary group.

In CE 73 a new version of the DRAGOON system is developed by ZAFT. This system doesn't require a pilot with highly spatial awareness and thus even a normal pilot can control this weapons (though it does that Newtype abilities do improve the use of this system). The new ZAFT Gundam-type mobile suit ZGMF-X666S Legend is equipped with this new DRAGOON version, as is the ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom. Also the ZGMF-X24S Chaos uses a simplified version of this system in the form of two Gunbarrel-like weapon pods, which apparently does not use Mirage Colloid because it was part of the "New Millenium" series which obeyed the Treaty of Junius. It is likely that the Earth Alliance copied this technology for the GFAS-X1 Destroy's detachable arms.

The ORB-01 Akatsuki also has the "Shiranui" backpack equipped with DRAGOONs which are even able to create a beam shield between the units.

Deuterion Beam Energy Transfer System
The deuterion beam energy transfer system is a technology developed by ZAFT to remotely recharge the batteries of mobile suits. It was developed as a result of the ban of all military applications of the N-Jammer Canceller and nuclear power. With this system, a properly outfitted ship can project a "deuterion beam" into the receiver of a mobile suit, rapidly recharging its battery in mid-battle. The first vessel to be outfitted with this system is the battleship Minerva. The "G.U.N.D.A.M" acronym for mobile suits equipped with a Deuterion Beam Energy Transfer System is Generation Unrestricted Network Drive Assault Module.

Mirage Colloid
Mirage Colloid is a sythetic particle first discovered by the Earth Alliance's Atlantic Federation, which can be used for a variety of military purposes.

At the end of the Bloody Valentine War, the Treaty of Junius was signed by representatives of the Earth Alliance and ZAFT. One of its provision banned the use of Mirage Colloid technology, seemingly putting an end to further development of this highly versatile particle.

The Mirage Colloid technology has many similarities to the Minovsky Technology of the Universal Century.

Mirage Colloid stealth system
The first use discovered was as a stealth device, and this technology was incorporated into the GAT-X207 Blitz. With the Mirage Colloid system activated, the mobile suit was covered by the particles, which bent light and RADAR waves around it, rendering the Blitz invisible to both visual and electronic detection. This application of Mirage Colloid was later incorporated into the MBF-P01-Re Astray Gold Frame Amatu, which used the severed arm of the Blitz, and was eventually repeated on a much larger scale to conceal ZAFT's huge superweapon GENESIS.

Although Mirage Colloid was banned, in CE 73, the top secret Earth Alliance battleship Girty Lue used its illegal Mirage Colloid stealth system to launch a sneak attack on ZAFT's Armory One base and steal three prototype Gundam mobile suits.

Geschmeidig Panzer
The next development of Mirage Colloid was the "Geschmeidig Panzer" energy deflection armor, employed by the GAT-X252 Forbidden and its descendants, the GAT-X255 Forbidden Blue and GAT-706S Deep Forbidden. This system utilized different Colloid particles to bend energy beams away from the mobile suit, providing excellent defensive capabilities. The "Geschmeidig Panzer" pods can also deflect water for use as a propulsion system.

The ZGMF-X56S Impulse's shield also includes a beam-deflection system, but it is not known whether it employs Colloid particles for this function.

The Earth Alliance later loaded extra-large Geschmeidig Panzers in abandoned O'Neill type space colonies for use with the Requiem beam cannon. While the beam cannon is located at the Daedalus lunar base, it is possible for the Requiem to freely aim at any target by changing the positions of the colonies and bending the beam between each point.



Mirage Colloid Virus Spreader
While the initial advances in Mirage Colloid technology were made by the Atlantic Federation, a more novel development came from another source: the Mirage Colloid virus spreader, created by the defense conglomerate Actaeon Industries and utilized in their prototype NMS-X07PO Gel Finieto. This system used Mirage Colloid particles to access the operating systems of nearby mobile suits and infect them with a computer virus, unimpeded by Neutron Jammer interference. However, the Gel Finieto was otherwise lightly armed and generally unremarkable, and there was little military interest in the mobile suit.

Wings of Light
The Wings of Light (Hikari no Tsubasa), used by ZAFT's ZGMF-X42S Destiny, are the most recent technology to incorporate Mirage Colloid. While their primary function is as a propulsion system, which gives the suit acceleration superior to any contemporary mobile suit, they also incorporate a Mirage Colloid holographic system. This system spreads Colloid particles, leaving a trail of visible after-images that can confuse enemy sensors. However, the power requirements of the Wings of Light are very high, and even Destiny's hyper-deuterion nuclear reactor cannot sustain them for more than brief periods.

Another form of the Wings of Light can be found on the ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom; they can only be activated when its DRAGOON pods are deployed. Other than a cosmetic feature, however, they serve no other known purpose, and do not cause immense drain on its nuclear reactor unlike Destiny's. Rather, they are simply due to the fact that the thruster layout on Strike Freedom's "wings" is similar to that of Destiny.

Phonon Maser
The phonon maser was created by ZAFT for use in amphibious mobile suits, to counteract the ineffectiveness of standard beam weapons in underwater environments. Phonon masers concentrate sound waves into highly destructive laser-like beams. The Earth Alliance was later able to duplicate phonon maser technology for use in its own series of amphibious mobile suits.

Positron Blaster Cannon
Positron blaster cannons are highly powerful weapons used as the main guns of some large warships. They fire beams of positrons, the antimatter equivalent of electrons. When such a beam comes into contact with an object, the positrons and electrons annihilate each other, which in turn causes the target to break apart on a molecular level. A side effect of this process is a burst of highly lethal gamma radiation. Positron blaster cannons include the "Lohengrin" cannons used by the Earth Alliance's Archangel-class assault ships and Orb's Izumo-class battleships and the "Tannhäuser" cannon of the ZAFT battleship Minerva. In addition, at least one Earth Alliance fortification on the Arabian Peninsula has been equipped with a "Lohengrin", and the MBF-P03-2 Gundam Astray Blue Frame Second L can be equipped with a miniaturized "Lohengrin", which is the size of a large mobile suit bazooka.

Positronic Interference
Positronic interference is a side effect of firing a positron blaster cannon within Earth's atmoshere that can be used to launch a vessel into space without use of a mass driver. If positron blasters are fired while a ship is in flight, they can produce a cone of positrons that literally disintegrate the atmosphere in front of the ship, eliminating air resistance and allowing it to achieve greater velocity without the risk of burning up in the earth's atmosphere. However, the procedure is only used as an emergency exit, not the standard procedure

Gungnir System
The Gungnir System, named for the legendary spear of the Norse god Odin, is a powerful electromagnetic pulse system produced by ZAFT to disable electronic systems (including the controls of mobile suits) without harming living creatures. ZAFT's own mobile suits have heavy EMP shielding and are unaffected by the Gungnir System, but the Earth Alliance's early mass-production model GAT-01 Strike Daggers' shielding proved insufficient to protect against it. Later Earth Alliance mobile suits include improved EMP shielding, rendering the Gungnir useless.

Anti-Beam Coating
Anti-beam coating is a material that can be applied to the surface of objects to make them resistant to beam weaponry. Nearly all mobile suit shields have anti-beam coating applied to the outer face, allowing them to withstand numerous hits by beam rifles and blades, and even provide some protection against a warship's large beam cannons, but anti-beam coating wears down over time because of constant attacks of beam and physical attacks, so mobile suit shields have to re-apply new layers of anti-beam coatings after every battle. ZAFT warships also have a thin anti-beam coating, and a few rare bladed weapons are also anti-beam coated.

Mirror Coating
Mirror coating is a highly improved version of anti-beam coating developed by Morgenroete for use on the ORB-01 Akatsuki. While ordinary anti-beam coating merely disperses energy beams, mirror coating actually reflects them. As a result, if the Akatsuki is hit at the proper angle, it can cause an attacking mobile suit to be destroyed by its own beam. Mirror coating also gives any surface it is applied to a highly reflective gold sheen.

Anti-Beam Depth Charge
Anti-beam depth charges are cylindrical pods that can be released by some warships, which detonate and release clouds of beam-absorbing particles. These particles disperse relatively quickly, but temporarily reduce the power of beam shots. As the particles have the same effect on beams fired by the ship that deployed them, anti-beam depth charges are typically used to cover a retreat.

Laminated Armor
Laminated armor is an outer armor layer consisting of a single piece, rather than connected plates. It provides protection against beam weaponry by dispersing them across the entire surface of the armor. This provides superior protection against beam weapons, but eventually laminated armor begins to melt from the accumulated heat. Laminated armor is used on the Archangel-class assault ships and the GAT-01A1 105 Dagger and GAT/A-01E2 Buster Dagger mobile suits and almost all Earth Alliance's later mobile suits.



Phase Shift Armor
Phase Shift armor is a technology designed to protect mobile suits from physical attack.

Phase Shift, or "PS" armor, is formed by millions of nano-robots that provide protection by changing their physical properties. When PS armor powers up, a hissing sound can be heard and the grey surface of the mobile suit's armor is overlaid in color, which appears to be alterable by entering different values in the Armor Voltage section of the OS. Once powered up, the PS armor consumes minimal energy unless it is being actively attacked. ZAFT commander Andrew Waltfeld, through his knowledge of the Phase Shift armor, estimated that the GAT-X105 Strike Gundam in standard use can take approximately 72 hits from TMF/A-802 BuCUE's missiles, before the energy usage drains the battery. Against the 76.2mm assault rifle carried by the ZGMF-1017 GINN, the Strike Gundam's armor is effectively unlimited.

A different theory is based on quantum mechanics which, although not fully understood in the CE universe, is understood far better than it is today and is applied in several other aspects. Phase shift of a trig wave is simply a x-value shift. Phase shift in matter refers to leptons, a broad that category of wavicles (something which has properties of both waves and particles) that includes photons and electrons. When their phase is shifted they change into a different wavicle. Certain machines inside the armor change photons which are are in abundance because of ambient lighting and because other parts of the armor make some light. Now there is an abundance of electrons creating a strong negative charge to the armor (far stronger than what could be achieved with an electric current) and since all matter has an electron cloud, the outside edge of the weapon and armor never really touch. Beam weapons, which are composed of plasma (positive charge), are atracted to the armor and the extra electrons do not protect the Mobile Suit. The largest consumption of enegy occurs during start up because so many electrons must be created. Large drains occur when protecting against missiles and other explosives because that force strips lots of electrons off forcing the armor to create more. Beams also drain it because their positive ions attract some of the electrons again forcing the armor to make more. Running time even when not under attack is, although much longer, not infinite because the negative electrons dissapate and stray photons can also remove electrons.

Phase Shift armor (PS) was developed by the Earth Alliance, and first rolled out in Cosmic Era 71. It remains in use as of CE 73. The first mobile suits to be equipped with PS Armor are the so-called "Gundams", GAT-X102 Duel, GAT-X103 Buster, GAT-X105 Strike, GAT-X207 Blitz and GAT-X303 Aegis. Later, both ZAFT and the Orb Union's Morgenroete, Inc. were able to study and duplicate the armor design.

The inverse of the Phase Shift armor concept is the Universal Century's I-field generator, which defends against beam weaponry but has no effect against physical attack.

Limitations
Because PS armor draws energy off of a mobile suit, the suits so equipped must have a means of replenishing that energy, or risk power depletion. During the war, the existence of N-Jammers limited mobile suits and mobile armors to operation on an energy battery (some mobile suits were equipped with various turbine engines to extend their operating time, but almost none had truly unlimited operational ability).

PS armor grants near-invulnerability to projectiles, but it has virtually no effect on beam weapons, so most PS armored mobile suits carry a shield with an ablative anti-beam coating for defense against beams.

Nuclear power could give a PS armored mobile suit theoretically unlimited operating time, however during the Bloody Valentine War the widespread use of N-Jammers made this nearly impossible and afterward, the Treaty of Junius outlawed nuclear-powered mobile suits. Only a few nuclear-powered mobile suits were made in any event, including the YMF-X000A Dreadnought, ZGMF-X09A Justice, ZGMF-X10A Freedom, ZGMF-X11A Regenerate,ZGMF-X12A Testament Gundam, ZGMF-X13A Providence, ZGMF-X999A ZAKU Trial Type, and during the Second Bloody Valentine War the ZGMF-X19A Infinite Justice and ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom. Each of these units incorporated an N-Jammer Canceller in their design, negating the effects of the N-Jammers in the field.

Trans Phase armor
During the war, OMNI Enforcer experimented with ways to extend the usefulness of PS Armor, leading to the development of Trans Phase armor (TP), which improved on PS Armor by only activating at the point of impact. However, this left TP armored mobile suits vulnerable to heavy attack from multiple vectors (a sufficiently powerful weapon could also overpower the TP armor). Orb's Morgenroete, Inc. produced a similar Phase Shift system to armor the cockpit of the refitted MBF-P03 Astray Blue Frame Second L. While this armor was not referred to as Trans Phase, it was functionally identical. Extensive usage of Phase Shift armour, however, consumes a lot of energy, and so cannot be used for a long time

ZAFT continues to develop Phase Shift armor after the war (the Earth Alliance seems to have abandoned it for the less power intensive Trans-Phase armor and conventional laminated armor) culminating in the development of Variable Phase Shift (VPS) Armor on the ZGMF-X56S Impulse, which alters the color and strength, and by extension the power consumption, to fit the suit's different configurations.

Lightwave Barrier
A lightwave barrier is an energy field which blocks both physical and energy weapons. This technology was developed by the Eurasian Federation to protect its asteroid fortress Artemis. This barrier became known as the "Umbrella of Artemis". Later, a mobile suit-scale version, known as "Armure Lumiere", was developed for Eurasia's CAT1-X Hyperion series mobile suits. This system could be used to form a triangular arm-mounted beam shield or a complete 360-degree barrier, although the latter could be maintained for only 5 minutes. The "Armure Lumiere" also allowed the Hyperion Gundams' specialized beam submachine gun to fire through its barrier. Lightwave barriers can, however, be pierced by physical blades with anti-beam coating, or by another lightwave shield shaped to have a sufficiently pointed tip.

In CE 73, ZAFT began deploying beam shields, which seem to function in the same manner as lightwave shields. The ZGMF-X42S Destiny, and ZGMF-X666S Legend all utilize this technology, as do the Clyne Faction's ZGMF-X19A Infinite Justice, ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom, and ZGMF-XX09T DOM Trooper. However, it is not known if these beam shields share the weakness of the lightwave barriers.

Positron Deflector
A positron deflector is an energy barrier that uses a field of positrons to deflect beam weapons. In CE 73, the Earth Alliance creates several mobile armors which use this system to create a shield to protect themselves or fixed installations. The first mobile armor with this system is the YMAF-X6BD Zamza-Zah which fights against the Minerva when it flees from Orb. With its deflector it can even withstand the Tannhäuser positron cannon. The second unit, the YMAG-X7F Gells-Ghe, is used to protect the Alliance's Lohengrin positron cannon in the Gulnahan Ravine. Later, the mass produced mobile armor TS-MB1B Euclid is equipped with a positron deflector. Finally, the massive GFAS-X1 Destroy mounts three positron reflectors, rendering it virtually imperverious to the weapons of the ZAFT mobile suits and land battleships occupying central Eurasia. The Alliance refits a few of their Drake class ships with bow-mounted positron reflectors in CE 74 to protect one of the superweapon Requiem's relay stations. The ZGFMF-X12 Astray Out Frame uses a pair of "beam signs", capable of reflecting even a positron blast, suggesting that it could have positron reflector technology.

Scale System
A scale system is method of propulsion developed by ZAFT for use in land battleships. Scale systems use the vibrations of thousands of tiny mechanical scales to move over loose soil or sand, and can also function on water. For smaller vehicles such as mobile suits, a scale system can also be used for underwater propulsion, though the relatively fragile scales cannot withstand the high pressures of the ocean depths, requiring the mobile suit to remain close to the surface. As the scale system can propel a vehicle sideways or backwards (or vertically, in underwater use) with equal speed to forward motion, vehicles with a scale system tend to be more agile than those of comprable size that are reliant on conventional thrusters or screw propellers.