Jegans on the Space Ark in F91

[Deathzealot]

Hello all I recently rewatched the F91 movie and I realized something. In the scene where the Arc is seen launching her Mobile Suits inside the colony we see two Jegans in front of Brigit's Heavygun. I then wondered where they came from, we see two Jegan's escorting Annemarie a few scenes before but are these the two Escort Jeagans or two others that the Space Ark picked up later. But even then we do not see them anymore after that and never see them launch before Brigit.

[ShadowCell]

Moved to Mecha and Technology.

[Zeonista]

You do know that EFSF/AEUG ships can carry more MS than the hero's Gundam and his budies' MS, right?

Seriously, it is quite likely that Space Ark has a 4-pack squad of Jegans aboard as a standard complement of MS. They get to do all the standard MS roles in the story, which you saw in the animation. If the Jegans weren't seen more often, well, keep in mind that Gundam Formula 91 is a collage of various bits of intended-for-TV footage. So the Jegans only appear when necessary, and otherwise are off screen. For that matter, the platoon of Nemos on Arghama don't get a lot of screen time, either. We mostly know they are present because a) pilots appear in a crowd scene, b) they are launched, c) a Titan pilot character destroys one.

[Black Knight]

When the Space Ark comes down for a landing inside the main colony near the resistance base, there is a sequence of some Jegan pilots sitting on their cockpit hatches, watching Space Ark land, and talking about it being their new base.

I'd postulate that the Jegans seen when Annamarie launches could be those.

[Deathzealot]

I wonder if those Jegans were the same ones that got there buts kicked later when the Crossbone Mobile Suits made it into the colony.

[Black Knight]

Possibly, but there are roughly a dozen Jegans seen, along with a smattering of G-Cannons, when the Black Vanguard finally make it into the colony. Far more than Space Ark could conceivably operate. And one wonders what so many MS were doing in garrison, anyway, with all the fighting going on between the CV fleet w/ Dorel's unit and the EFSF squadron. I guess they were just giving Zabine something to blow up...

[SOCL]

Possibly, but there are roughly a dozen Jegans seen, along with a smattering of G-Cannons, when the Black Vanguard finally make it into the colony. Far more than Space Ark could conceivably operate. And one wonders what so many MS were doing in garrison, anyway, with all the fighting going on between the CV fleet w/ Dorel's unit and the EFSF squadron. I guess they were just giving Zabine something to blow up...

I think you may be reading too much into all this. More likely they were just nearby when the attack occurred. That or their intelligence indicated an attack was imminent and so they were prepared, as it were. The fact we see Jegans acting as defenders when we know they are the old-timers in this era next to the Heavyguns may say something about their use as colony defensive units. The sheer number of units that try to combat the Vanguard says something about the Federation's relative preparedness; not necessarily that they predicted the attack, but they at least were prepared if one occurred (even if, as it turned out, it wasn't enough).

[Black Knight]

While Jegans are indeed the older machines, we consistently see all three main types of EFSF mobile suit (Jegan, Heavygun, G-Cannon) being used in mixed groups. And, indeed, even among the units retreating in the face of Zabine's onslaught we see at least two G-Cannons.

Given the terrible showing of the Jegans and Heavyguns against Crossbone Vanguard MS forces, if the EFSF wanted any credible defense of the rear hatch (which would be an accepted use of limited military forces), they would have to put a warship back there, too. Because, unlike the Jegans et al, we actually see EFSF warships shoot down CV MS units. Thus my jesting comment that those MS were in the rear hatch only so Zabine's Black Vanguard would have something to blow up.

[JEFFPIATT]

surprisingly the eff does not have the jegans configured as support units by that time. The idea in the film is that post uc 100 the eff has basically been slower to update it's fleet of ms. but seeing that the side was remote i guess they got the units on there last legs. Seeing that the ark was a training ship i would have expected it to have the jegans onbord as training units and a more limited supply of newer model ms in its team.

[Zeonista]

Seeing that the ark was a training ship i would have expected it to have the jegans onbord as training units and a more limited supply of newer model ms in its team.

That would be a good presumption of Ark's situation when it appears in the episode. There is a notable story jump between the flight from Frontier 4 and the establishment of th eEFSF falback position at Frontier 1 in the film, so some details got lost in the compiling. The F91, Heavygun, and Annamarie's MS don't seem to be taxing the MS hanger, so there seems to be room for 3-4 Jegans, especially regarding the Jegans being slender for MS.

[Black Knight]

The Federation does have Jegans configured for support roles; two of them, in fact. The missile-armed M-type Jegan (Picture "C") is a direct successor in role to the GM III, having lots of missiles for medium-ranged combat (against other MS, not ships). There is also the Stark Jegan from CCA-MSV, purposely designed as a ship-killer.

The M-types are even in the Gundam F91 film, though only rarely; I think I only counted three, all in the same shot, though I no longer remember where in the film they appear.

Since it was designed as an "interceptor" or MS-killing suit, the Jegan is purposely ineffective against enemy ships, and in the early days of its service the fire-support role was filled by the GM III if it was considered necessary at all (rarely), while sometime after the events of CCA the Federation retired the GM III and seem to have replaced that mission with the Jegan-M.

What's more, the F71 is designed to handle the later, post-Jegan fire-support (whether against MS or against larger, harder targets), so there was, again, no need to design or field in large numbers a Jegan purposely-built for that role. Hell, the F91-MSV even gives us a Heavygun Full Equipment Type, which is clearly intended to fill the long-range heavy fire-support role which is beyond the scope of the Jegan-M.

[JEFFPIATT]

I actually think it shows just how long the EFSF was stuck with them to have three sub types made before a new rgm model is rolled out. The HI-MO type has parts based on the RGZ-91 on it while the support type has the beam saber mount the gm cannon II and Nu gundam used. The normal type is basically a gm 2 it sucks as much as it did when we first saw it in cca. I am actually surprised the eff was not using geara doga's seeing how cheep the eff was. we see one in the f90 manga so I would assume one would be on the space ark as a aggressor unit.

[Black Knight]

Given that ~30 Jegans were able to fight off ~90 Geara Dogas, I'd say the Jegan was extremely competent at what it did, though it helped that Londo Bell's pilots knew what they were doing and Char's Neo-Zeons were kids. Nevertheless, the Jegans put up one hell of a fight against the Geara Dogas, and many of them survived despite the odds and enemy Newtypes in Psycommu-equipped machines. Given how many Jegans we see straggling back to Ra Cailum, it's quite possible that the only Jegans lost were the ones we see destroyed on-screen, the majority of which fall to named pilots, almost none to random Geara Dogas. On the other hand, the scarcity of Geara Dogas after the fighting stops suggests that the majority were killed off-screen by nameless Jegan pilots.

Using multiple specialized variants of the same basic design is a time-honored technique for saving money and easing logistical concerns, and has existed in Gundam shows since the original MSV with its plethora of Zaku variants, and the Zaku was in use by Zeon for only a tithe of the time the EFSF used the Jegan.

Even with its age, surprisingly few Jegans are destroyed on-screen in Gundam F91, with less than half of those which appear being destroyed on-screen.

[DeltasTaii]

I actually think it shows just how long the EFSF was stuck with them to have three sub types made before a new rgm model is rolled out. The HI-MO type has parts based on the RGZ-91 on it while the support type has the beam saber mount the gm cannon II and Nu gundam used. The normal type is basically a gm 2 it sucks as much as it did when we first saw it in cca. I am actually surprised the eff was not using geara doga's seeing how cheep the eff was. we see one in the f90 manga so I would assume one would be on the space ark as a aggressor unit.

I think there was about 20 GM models by the end of the One Year War, I'd hardly say the Jegan making it to 8ish (including fun stuff like the ST-Gun, new Unicorn model, and Heavy Armor) mostly minor variants by UC0123 is that impressive.

[JEFFPIATT]

I do find it odd that the RGZ-91 was never adopted but a jegan model takes on its armor style and thruster load-out.

[Geoxile]

IIRC the Ark's drivers said all the pilots are out fighting. This seemed to imply they were alluding to the Ark's pilots not so much as the EFSF in general.

[yazi88]

I do find it odd that the RGZ-91 was never adopted but a jegan model takes on its armor style and thruster load-out.

Let's not forget it did the same for the Asshimar from Zeta Gundam with the Ankusha.

[JEFFPIATT]

Actually it looks like an rgz frame with the outer armor of the asshimar since it can transform still. The Jegan frame seems to be a more cost efficient version of the gundam mk2.