List of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED technology

This article deals with technology from the Cosmic Era subuniverse of the Gundam fictional universe, as found in the books/anime/manga/etc of Gundam Seed, Gundam Seed Destiny, Gundam Seed Astray, ...

Coordinator
Early in the Cosmic Era, the highly respected man named George Glenn announced the shocking news that he was the first Coordinator, born following a genetic manipulation procedure, resulting in a human "engineered" to be a better. Coordinators can have a number of enhanced traits including faster learning, and stronger and faster bodies that are virtually immune to diseases.

Those who were born naturally - that is, without this procedure - became known as "Naturals."

Following the rapid an widespread diffusion of Coordinators, the world was thrown into chaos, and anti-Coordinator pressure groups, such as Blue Cosmos, began labeling Coordinators as unhuman and declaring they had to be wiped out "for a blue and pure world." The world nations, the Atlantic Federation (North and South America, and Britain), the Republic of East Asia (China, Japan, etc.), and the Eurasian Federation began funding for a new space colony program. These new space colonies, known as PLANTs became the new permanent home for Coordinators. The Naturals intended to make the Earth their exclusive domain, although it was not uncommon to find Coordinators and Naturals living peacefully in nations such as the Orb Union.

Biological CPU program
The Biological CPU program was developed by the Atlantic Federation to create pilots for its mobile suits that would fight with the same efficiency as Coordinators.

First Stage Biological CPUs had some biotechnological modification and were mental condtioned to eliminate their sense of fear and increase their agression in combat; but, were mostly unaltered pilots who were given regular does of the performance-enhancing drug Gamma Glipheptin. This drug had a negative effect on the pilots' mental stability and caused them to behave in undesirable ways during battle. It also had very brief time limit, and as the effect wore off it left the pilots incapacitated with severe withdrawal symptoms. Because of this addiction to Gamma Glipheptin it was essentially assured they could never betray the Alliance. The first-stage Biological CPUs were Clotho Buer, Orga Sabnak and Shani Andras, three convicted criminals who were offered a clean slate in exchange for being inducted into the military as experimental subjects. All three died during the closing stages of the Bloody Valentine War.

Second Stage Biological CPUs are physically and psychologically altered with brainwashing and heavy mental conditioning. They are more stable than first-stage BCPUs, but tend to require regular re-conditioning, especially when their trigger words are used to force actions from them. Sting Oakley, Stellar Loussier and Auel Neider are second-stage BCPUs.

Biological CPUs of either stage possess strong enough combat abilities to press even very strong Coordinators such as Kira Yamato or Athrun Zala.

SIDE NOTE: "Biological CPUs" could be considered analogous to the Universal Century (Original Mobile Suit Gundam) timeline's concept of artificial or "cyber-Newtypes," who were normal pilots that were enhanced to have Newtype abilities.

Nuclear technologies
After the Bloody Valentine War all military use of these technologies was banned by the Bloody Valentine War#Treaty of Junius

Neutron Jammer
The N-Jammer or Neutron Jammer is a device which suppresses nuclear fission reactions by blocking the movement of free neutrons (it is probable that nuclear fusion, which does not rely on neutron emission, would be unaffected by an N-Jammer). Its effective range is so great that even a handful of these devices are sufficient to cover the entire Earth, nullifying all nuclear weapons and power plants on the planet's surface. The N-Jammer also has the side effect of disrupting radio waves, severely restricting the range of radar and conventional communications, and for this reason space warships are equipped with these devices as an electronic countermeasure.

The N-Jammer was originally developed in the PLANTs under the supervision of Supreme Council member Orson White. These devices were first employed in the battle for the space station Yggdrasil on February 22, C.E. 70, and on April 1 of that year the ZAFT forces drove countless N-Jammers into Earth's surface as the first phase of their Operation Uroboros campaign. The nations of Earth, which had previously depended on nuclear fission as their primary power source, were plunged into a severe energy crisis as a result.

During the winter of CE 70-71, at least tens of millions of Naturals died on Earth because of lack of energy for heating, due directly to the presence of N-Jammers on Earth. However, the Treaty of Junius outlawed the use of N-Jammers in combat, either in a defensive role or as a weapon.


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Neutron Jammer Canceller
Neutron Jammer Cancellers or N-Jammer Cancellers are devices used to cancel the effects of N-Jammers.

ZAFT deployed Neutron-Jammers to disallow the Earth Alliance use of nuclear weaponry. ZAFT also invented this device to cancel this effect in order to use nuclear weapons / generators. This would means nearly limitless supply of energy and a complete superiority over other battery powered Mobile Suits that had to be recharged periodically. In the debut episode, Kira takes the ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam from a PLANT (a space colony resembling an hourglass) to the JOSH-A base in Alaska.

Because the use of N-Jammers was banned by the Junius Treaty which ended the Bloody Valentine War, N-Jammer Cancellers are now semi-outdated technology; however, because of the still-present N-Jammers which were dropped on Earth during the War as offensive weapons, all nuclear power reactors on Earth are equipped with N-Jammer Cancellers. The Neutron Stampeder weapon appears to be derived from the N-Jammer Canceller.


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Neutron Stampeder
An experimental defensive weapon designed by ZAFT to protect against nuclear attack. The device is mounted on a Nazca class destroyer, and is nearly as large as the ship itself. When activated, the Neutron Stampeder emits a massive energy wave, which causes any nuclear weapons it comes in contact with to prematurely detonate. Unfortunately, the emitters fry themselves after firing, so the weapon can only be fired once.

The Neutron Stampeder was first fielded in CE 73, when it thwarted an Earth Alliance attempt to attack the PLANTs with nuclear missiles, causing the Alliance fleet to be wiped out by its own weapons.

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 and reached fruition in 71. The G mobile suits eventually became known collectively as "Gundams," named after the acronym for their mobile operating system.

The five mobile suits developed under the G Project are:


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

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.

Phase Shift armor
Phase Shift armor is a technology designed to protect mobile suits from physical attack. Phase Shift, or "PS" armor, consists of an energy field generated through superconducting conduits in the armored surface of a mobile suit. 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 is apparently predetermined when the armor is designed and cannot be altered. Once powered up, the PS armor takes minimal energy to maintain unless it is being actively attacked. ZAFT commander Andrew Waltfeld, through his observations of the Strike Gundam, estimated that that particular mobile suit in standard use can take approximately 72 hits with the missiles used by his corps' mobile suit, the TMF/A-802 BuCUE, before draining enough power to force a shutdown of the PS armor. Against the 76.2mm machine gun carried by the ZGMF-1017 GINN, the Strike Gundam's endurance is effectively unlimited.

PS armor was developed by the Earth Alliance and Morgenroete, Inc., 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 Gundam, GAT-X103 Buster Gundam, GAT-X105 Strike Gundam, GAT-X207 Blitz Gundam and GAT-X303 Aegis Gundam.

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 five nuclear-powered mobile suits were made in any event, the ZGMF-X09A Justice Gundam, ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam, ZGMF-X11A Regenerate Gundam, YMF-X000A Dreadnought Gundam and ZGMF-X13A Providence Gundam. Each of these units got around the N-Jammer problem by incorporating 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), and at the end of the war, TP armor was apparently abandoned, along with the "living CPU" pilots of the three TP armored Gundams, GAT-X131 Calamity Gundam, GAT-X252 Forbidden Gundam and GAT-X370 Raider Gundam.

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

METEOR (Mobile suit Embedded Tactical EnfORcer)
The METEOR (Mobile suit Embedded Tactical EnfORcer) support system is a large, unmanned vehicle created by ZAFT for use by the ZGMF-X09A Justice Gundam and ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam. The METEOR unit is propelled by powerful laser pulse thrusters, counteracting the considerable mass of the nearly 100 meter long vehicles. The METEOR design is extremely well-armed, mounting four battleship-grade beam cannons, two huge beam swords, and 77 missile launchers. The support ship Eternal is designed to carry the two METEOR units externally. One METEOR unit was destroyed at the end of the Bloody Valentine War, but the fate of the second is unknown. ZAFT also created variant of the METEOR system, the Verne 35A/MPFM Multipurpose Flight Module, which lacks the METEOR's heavy armament but can be used as a booster for a variety of mobile suits and shuttles.

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.

DRAGOON System
The DRAGOON (Disconnected Rapid Armament Group Overlook Operation Network) system is an experimental weapons system developed using technology bought from the defense conglomerate Actaeon Industries. The DRAGOON uses 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. It was one of the most powerful and deadly mobile suit weapons ever developed in the Earth/ZAFT War, perhaps excluding the MBF-P03-2 Gundam Astray Blue Frame Second's mobile suit sized "Lohengrin" positron blaster gun. The original system wss first tested in the YMF-X000A Dreadnought Gundam and used by three prototype ZGMF-X13A Providence Gundam units, with one being piloted by ZAFT ace Rau Le Creuset, but it was destroyed on September 26, C.E. 71 in the Second Battle of Jachin Due by Kira Yamato, piloting his ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam. The other two Providence Gundams disappeared. Their fates are unknown at this point.

On a side note, 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, and used against the Blue Frame Second late in the war. This version required three pilots, and didn't require a pilot with spacial awareness; instead, the computer takes the X, Y, and Z coordinates from the pilots to utilize the pods. These pods mounted a beam cannon and a beam gun, which made it much more powerful than the regular DRAGOON system mobile suits. Fortunately, before the Pergrande could make to the front lines, it was destroyed during testing by Blue Frame Second's "Lohengrin" positron blaster gun. After the signing of the Treaty of Junius on March 10, C.E. 72, which outlawed Mirage Colloid technology, the DRAGOON system was also apparently abandoned, but a similar system was used on the experimental XMF-P192P Proto Chaos mobile armor, and later used in the close combat mode of the ZGMF-X24S Chaos Gundam. But, the other two Providence Gundams are still missing, and a new war between ZAFT and the EA is going on, so, they could still be used.

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.

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. However, the power requirements were substantial, and Mirage Colloid could not be used simultaneously with Phase Shift armor. 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.

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. However, a mere two years later, 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 Gundam and its descendants, the GAT-X255 Forbidden Blue and GAT-706S Deep Forbidden. This system utilized Mirage Colloid particles to bend energy beams away from the mobile suit, providing excellent defensive capabilities. In the amphibious Forbidden Blue and Deep Forbidden units, the "Geschmeidig Panzer" pods were modified to also deflect water, for use as a propulsion system.

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 N-Jammer Canceller interference. However, the Gel Finieto was otherwise unarmed and generally unremarkable, and there was little military interest in the mobile suit.

Scale System
A scale system is method of propulsion developed by ZAFT for use in land battleships. Scale systems use the vibratoins 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.

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 Gundam series. 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 submachinegun to fire through its barrier. ZAFT later devised a similar system to reinforce the physical shield of the ZGMF-X56S Impulse Gundam.

In CE 73, the Earth Alliance creates mobile armors which use a variation of 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 Gerzu-Geh, is used to protect an Earth Alliance "Lohengrin Gate" positron cannon in Gulnahan.