RGM-79 GM

The RGM-79 GM (aka GM, pronounced Jim) was the first mass-produced mobile suit (MS) of the Earth Federation.
==Technology==
The GM was armed rather simply, with most of its weapons basically scaled down verisons of that of the RX-78-2 Gundam . The GM was primarily armed with a beam spray gun, which was basically a downgrade in most aspects of the Gundam's powerful beam rifle. It did have the distinction still of being the first mass produced beam weapon ever made - something the Zeon forces had yet to do. The beam spray gun had a much worse range than the beam rifles used by other Federation MS but it could still destroy MS in one shot and was just as accurate and had a higher rate of fire and more ammo. The GMs also used 100mm and 90mm machine guns, the latter having less ammo capacity but a better armor penetration rate. Heavy weapons wise, GMs used remakes of the Gundam's 380mm Hyper Bazooka. For close quarters combat, the GM featured a single beam saber, although earlier models had the twin-saber backpacks of the Gundam. Lastly, the GM had a pair of 60mm vulcan guns mounted in its head, which gave pilots backup firepower that was highly effective against aircraft and ground vehicles but woefully inadequate against mobile suits. Early in production, the beam spray rifle had yet to be completely mass produced so that most GMs were equppied with machine guns. By Operation Star One and Battle of Solomon, however, most the mobile suits used the beam weapon. It should also be noted that a small portion of the GMs stationed at the Federation General HQ in Jaburo also used the Gundam's beam rifle.(These may have been either spare or left-over hardware from the initial V-Project Gundam prototypes however.)
==Armaments==
===60mm Vulcan Gun===
The Vulcan cannons were 60mm chain guns stored on the sides of the GM's head. Having the greatest rate of fire of all the GM's weapons these are primarily used to ward off advancing enemies, shoot down missiles, or hit other fast moving targets. They also made good use as an anti-aircraft and anti-personnel weapons. The Vulcan cannons however had a hard time piercing heavy armor (Though they had shown the ability to do severe damage to Mobile Suit's if fired at point-blank range)and thus were not often used against larger more heavily armored foes. Still the vulcans were useful in preserving ammunition for the GM's more powerful weapons.
===Beam Saber===
The GM is the first ever mass produced mobile suit to use a beam-oriented weapon in melee combat. The saber is stored on the backpack. The beam saber uses Minovsky particles held in place by an I-Field to form an effective cutting surface that can slice through nearly any material. The particles for the beam saber is stored by E-cap in the hilt of the saber, which is recharged from the GM's reactor when the saber is returned to its socket. Once activated, beam saber does not rely on the mobile suit's reactor and can be thrown or discarded as decoys. The beam saber is most often used for close range combat or as an emergency weapon once all other ammunition has been depleted.
===BR-M-79C-1 Beam Spray Gun===
Like the Gundam's Beam Rifle. It is the primary weapon of the GM.
==History==
At the onset of the One Year War, the Earth Federation did not take the mobile suit threat seriously- this was until the Principality of Zeon military completely outmaneuvered and subsequently decimated the Earth Federal Spaces Forces in space with their MS-06 Zaku II. As forces of Zeon laid siege on Earth, the Federation developed several mobile suit prototypes, the most notable being the RX-78-2 Gundam, and from the Gundam came the Earth Federation's first mass production mobile suit: the RGM-79 GM. The GM would serve as the Federation's primary mobile suit throughout the war as well as the basis of the Earth Federation's mobile suits for over fifteen years.
The RGM-79 was far more mobile in space than the Zeon's Zaku II with a maximum thruster acceleration of 0.94 Gs, even better than the Gundam's 0.93 Gs and roughly twice of the Zaku's acceleration. On the Earth's surface, the GM is faster than the Zaku II in a sprint with a top running speed of 102 kilometers per hour compared to the Zeon mobile suit's 88 km/h. The GM had a hull armoured in titanium alloy, which is stronger than the Zaku II's super-high tensile steel armor yet allows for a minumum thickness, keeping its weight and production cost down.
During the One Year War, the GM would commonly be supported by the RB-79 Ball mobile pod.
Overall, the RGM-79 GM was superior is almost all respects to that of the Zeon's Zaku II mobile suit. And, to compensate for Zeon's initially being more experienced in mobile suit warfare, the Federation started with the 'quantity over quality' approach. By the time of the GM's true introduction at the Battle of Jaburo, the Zeon forces had already started production of the MS-09 Dom, a mobile suit that performed slightly better than the GM but not appreciably more-survivable or deadlier against the GM's weaponries. When the war went back into space, the GM actually outperformed the MS-09R Rick Doms in most ways and were outperformed later by the MS-14 Gelgoogs; unfortunately for Zeon, the Rick Doms and Gelgoogs would be held up by the bickering Zabi family politics and the equally-serious ineptitude of high-level Zeon commanders preoccupied with bringing down the White Base and the Gundam. In the end, the Rick Dom was produced in too few numbers and the Gelgoog wouldn't be deployed until the last two weeks of the war.
By the time the Gelgoogs entered service, they were piloted mostly by novice pilots and fresh recruits against a superior number of battle-hardened Federation counterparts, a situation that also plagued the surviving Zaku IIs and even the MS-05B Zaku I that were forced to soldier on due to the scarcity of new mobile suits. It is then when Federation victory became all but guaranteed.
The GM line was first established through the RGM-79[E] GM Precession Type, a prototype verison that would set down the basics for the GM. The basic GM frame would later be updated and upgraded into the RGM-79R GM II during the mid-UC 0080s.
Category:Mobile Suits
Category:GM-type Mobile Suits
Category:Earth Federation Mobile Suits
Category:Earth Federation Forces