How big was Augusta Lab during OYW anyway?

[False Prophet]

I mean, I could accept them building the 4th, 5th, and Alex Gundam. They are just fancier things of already existing models anyway. But then they just had to add the four Pale/Red/Black/White Rider, plus giving away the RX-80 frame of the Pale Rider to make the Blue Destiny 1, 2 and 3 in the manga. How much resources and manpower did Augusta have during the OYW actually?

[Mafty]

Augusta was probably one of the bigger terrestrial bases, and its noted to be the earliest to study Newtypes in the Federation. So powerful Newtype based weaponry would probably mostly have come from here. We do see a lot of Federation bases in Gundam, but not that many seemed to be large enough to mass produce prototype weaponry. So Augusta probably goes up with Jabrou and the California Base (which would have been under Zeon control at the time) in terms of size and production capacity.

[Underrated GM Custom]

This is one of the issues when expanded material tries to fill in gaps or create a sidestory in an area already densely packed with content. So if you were a writer for a sidestory and wanted an origin for your hidden new Gundam or not-a-Gundam special MS then Augusta is an easy and credible choice since its been established they had already developed other Gundams. Logistical constraints and the extra short timeline of Federation MS production during the OYW tend to get ignored if there's a chance to sell a new Gunpla as well.

The only time I remember Augusta facilities being featured in a sidestory was in Gundam Legacy Volume 2 during a mock-battle between the C2 operators for the Thoroughbred and Phantom Sweep.

[Mafty]

Totally, side stories often add on different content that drastically expands the tech of the original(ie just how many Gundam's existed during the OYW by this point?), and sometimes play with the setting in other ways. For instance Thunderbolt(SPOILERS) features the South Sea Alliance controlling a large percentage of Asia, despite 08th MS Team showing that territory being fought over by both the Federation and Zeon, And Anaheim owning an entire factory city with their name on it.

[Underrated GM Custom]

Oh interesting, I haven't gotten that far in Thunderbolt. That's a pretty significant geopolitical shakeup.

[MythSearcher]

Augusta was a mental health facility of EFF next to Augusta base, it became a NT lab just because some researcher there wrote some paper about it.(relating to the inmates brought back from the frontlines) and yes, if you look at the map, it should be in major combat zones.

BTW, that is why Thunderbolt isn't cannon.
The author isn't known for him adhering to a settings, his own Moonlight Mile became a mess pretty fast because he could even stick to his own settings.