Least Powerful/ Weakest Gundams?

[MythSearcher]

I thought in the Zeta movies its mentioned that the Titans planned on replacing the armor with Luna Titanium once testing was completed. If that's the case it does beg the question, why didn't the AEUG put luna titanium on the MK-II at any point in its long lifetime?

I don't think AEUG really has that much resources at the time.
I don't think their main concern will be upgrading a random one off model but to increase the overall military power.
Also, it somehow survived quite well, so they may not really care about it at the time.

[Mafty]

The AEUG has an acceptable amount of resources; they are able to build a small fleet of powerful ships(one that appears to be Pegasus Class inspired) A powerful Gundam; two mass produced units, and several more experimental high quality units all made with Gundarium Alloy. The problem may not have been money, but time. The AEUG need the powerful new Gundam in their fleet; which is why one unit was kept as the main weapon, while the others were taken apart and analyzed. So there simply wasn't the time to replace the armor on their one used unit. Of course this brings up the question why when the units are repaired following the first war, they don't replace the armor?

[MythSearcher]

The AEUG has an acceptable amount of resources; they are able to build a small fleet of powerful ships(one that appears to be Pegasus Class inspired) A powerful Gundam; two mass produced units, and several more experimental high quality units all made with Gundarium Alloy. The problem may not have been money, but time. The AEUG need the powerful new Gundam in their fleet; which is why one unit was kept as the main weapon, while the others were taken apart and analyzed. So there simply wasn't the time to replace the armor on their one used unit. Of course this brings up the question why when the units are repaired following the first war, they don't replace the armor?

Those are supplied by AE for their own purposes, Argama was to present EFF the Irish class and Nahel Argama was another test unit.
AEUG relied on AE from the beginning to the end. And in 0089, after their reintegration into EFF, EFF is being reorganised and recovering from the civil war and thus have more places it needed to focus its resources in.
Notice Mk-II isn't produced by AE and there will be no benefit for them to have it perform better than their own units. The best they will do is maybe modify GM III armour for it to use.
It was quite some time later that AE produced their own Mk-II in MSV-R RoJR for Yazan, who hated the idea that he of all people have to pilot a Gundam.

[Underrated GM Custom]

True the AEUG was definitely resource constrained and Luna Titanium is extremely expensive (plus replacement armor!). But it is used by their Ace Pilot so you'd think they would want the best protection possible. Mafty's point makes a lot of sense though, since the AEUG rarely ever got a break during Zeta they probably didn't have time to do a full strip down and replacement since MK-II was always on combat alert.

Although I do wonder, perhaps they did replace the armor, either piece by piece or after it suffers extensive damage and since it happens off screen its not mentioned. Perhaps a bit far-fetched since kit manuals are detailed enough I'd be surprised they would leave that off. I wonder if any other manuals for the Super Gundam specifically cal out that the MK-II is still using Ti-Ceramic composite, if so that would certainly disapprove that theory.

It was quite some time later that AE produced their own Mk-II in MSV-R RoJR for Yazan, who hated the idea that he of all people have to pilot a Gundam.

Y'know I completely forgot they shoved Yazan into a MK-II. I'll have to reread RoJR sometime, I'm currently in the middle of Sentinel so I'll probably hit that one next, well unless another issue of 0083 Rebellion releases .

[MythSearcher]

True the AEUG was definitely resource constrained and Luna Titanium is extremely expensive (plus replacement armor!). But it is used by their Ace Pilot so you'd think they would want the best protection possible. Mafty's point makes a lot of sense though, since the AEUG rarely ever got a break during Zeta they probably didn't have time to do a full strip down and replacement since MK-II was always on combat alert.

Well, if we are only talking about armour, then I don't think we need a full strip down.
EFF designs are focused on ease of maintenance(compared to Zeon designs) and exchanged mass performance with easily changeable armour.

Although I do wonder, perhaps they did replace the armor, either piece by piece or after it suffers extensive damage and since it happens off screen its not mentioned. Perhaps a bit far-fetched since kit manuals are detailed enough I'd be surprised they would leave that off. I wonder if any other manuals for the Super Gundam specifically cal out that the MK-II is still using Ti-Ceramic composite, if so that would certainly disapprove that theory.

I'd say if we look at RoJR, AE likely just produced whatever material they see fit and easy to obtain when they produced new armour for the Mk-II. Just like the Gelgoogs with newest armour material(likely referring to Gundarium gamma)
However, during the Gryps war, Karmille almost have the Mk-II undamaged, so I doubt it got any armour upgrade.(internal parts, maybe)

The Japanese wikipedia claims the in MS Graphica, they listed the armour material as "Titanium alloy ceramic composite(Luna Titanium Alloy)" (Also notice this is the first time a "4th unit" appeared, so maybe the 4th unit armour is different)

I guess they didn't bother too much about the Mk-II because its main problem isn't the armour, since Lunar Titanium(Gundarium alpha) isn't that much stronger than the composite(the foam metal only give it an extra hit according to the PG Gundam manual) It is about the movable frame not being made with Gundarium gamma, and while it gave it good performance, the weakness in the frame rendered it impossible to have better performance. In the dawning age of beam weaponry where they can come up with a concept to reduce armour to obtain higher evasion rate even for a Gundarium gamma armour MS(Hyakushiki), I doubt you really want to just replace the amour of Mk-II.

Y'know I completely forgot they shoved Yazan into a MK-II. I'll have to reread RoJR sometime, I'm currently in the middle of Sentinel so I'll probably hit that one next, well unless another issue of 0083 Rebellion releases :D .

Yazan's Mk-II is relatively new in the manga, so just reread from vol. 17 or so.
Oh man, I just love how Yazan reacted when he knew they gave him a Gundam(and ironically a Mk-II, I mean, they also have a RX-78 derivative for Johnny-ko[Ingrid], which will definitely be less offensive to Yazan) One of the arc performance of Ark Performance

[Underrated GM Custom]

Great points all around, with how common beam weapons became in Zeta it makes sense they wouldn't see the point in replacing the MK-IIs armor with a more expensive armor. Ironically in CCA we do see grenades and missiles being used en masse by nearly every unit, that'd be an excellent time to have Gundarium. Still, isn't Luna Titanium (Gundarium Alpha) lighter than Ti-Ceramic Composite? If it is, then it would be a worthwhile upgrade to keep weight down.

I guess they didn't bother too much about the Mk-II because its main problem isn't the armour, since Lunar Titanium(Gundarium alpha) isn't that much stronger than the composite(the foam metal only give it an extra hit according to the PG Gundam manual)

Can you clarify what yo umean by this one? Sounds like Lunar Titanium can withstand one additional hit, but a hit of what? I'm guessing from a bazooka / HE round?

Yazan's Mk-II is relatively new in the manga, so just reread from vol. 17 or so.

I think I stopped around Vol 10, so I have a long way to catch up. It was certainly interesting seeing the Heavy Gundam in action, I always figured it would be a good deal slower than most units, especially if you're used to using a Gaplant.

[MythSearcher]

Great points all around, with how common beam weapons became in Zeta it makes sense they wouldn't see the point in replacing the MK-IIs armor with a more expensive armor. Ironically in CCA we do see grenades and missiles being used en masse by nearly every unit, that'd be an excellent time to have Gundarium. Still, isn't Luna Titanium (Gundarium Alpha) lighter than Ti-Ceramic Composite? If it is, then it would be a worthwhile upgrade to keep weight down.

Probably not.
Lunar Titanium have a smaller density, but that is because it is a foam metal.
You can always use different layouts of armour that make use of the same mass of material with a higher density to have a similar thickness and rigidity(like having spaced armour, honeycomb structure, etc. considering space unit will need at least Whipple shielding level protection from debris, spaced armour is also a requirement)

The only thing I am concerned of is that Mk-II shouldn't supposed to be combat ready. They are ready for testing but I doubt it is ready for combat testing, and it would be strange to have full functional armour on them when they are just doing motion testing. Maybe that is why they used Ti-Ceramic composite instead of Lunar Titanium to begin with.

Can you clarify what yo umean by this one? Sounds like Lunar Titanium can withstand one additional hit, but a hit of what? I'm guessing from a bazooka / HE round?

The paragraph was talking about how it can take 120mm rounds, so it is about an additional hit from one.
They are likely rationalising how RX-78 survived the 1st ep. hit looking unscathed. Yes, in appearance only, the foam parts are compressed and no longer have that function anymore.
Since real life armour won't work like that, I'd personally rationalise it as HE rounds, not HEAT or HESH/HEP rounds, and not AP/FSDS rounds. Maybe HEI as well, but likely only those rounds that aren't design to penetrate.

I think I stopped around Vol 10, so I have a long way to catch up. It was certainly interesting seeing the Heavy Gundam in action, I always figured it would be a good deal slower than most units, especially if you're used to using a Gaplant.

Well, I'd say they are making a lot of changes and using the newest tech in those machines(like the MS-14s they are showing). Ingrid isn't in the FSS, so her unit can well be just a Heavy Gundam in appearance. Yazan's Mk-II as well, that is likely built with completely new tech. Typical AE quality.

[Underrated GM Custom]

I'm going to have to pick up the PG kit sometime there's some really interesting information in there.

Anytime a new-old suit shows up in RoJR I just assume they've retrofitted it with the latest and greatest parts. My surprise was that Ingrid didn't seem like she had a style of fighting consistent with the Heavy Gundam so I was thinking they'd pick a different MSV Gundam to give her. Certainly entertaining to watch though. If Yazan's MK-II get's trashed maybe we'll finally get to see one of the MK III or MK IV in action.

[MythSearcher]

I'm going to have to pick up the PG kit sometime there's some really interesting information in there.

You can read it in Dalong first. Granted, the scans for RG RX-78-2 there are really small and hard to read, but at least gives you some idea.

Anytime a new-old suit shows up in RoJR I just assume they've retrofitted it with the latest and greatest parts. My surprise was that Ingrid didn't seem like she had a style of fighting consistent with the Heavy Gundam so I was thinking they'd pick a different MSV Gundam to give her.

Yes, but at the same time we see her practising a lot, a lot of getting used to with mock battles against Yazan with Yazan teaching her a trick or two.(Hey, Yazan is supposed to be her bodyguard)

[Underrated GM Custom]

I have to say Yazan was my favorite character to add into the mix in RoJR, nothing better than two old types with incredible skills on opposing sides.

As for weakest Gundam if we want to consider how long the model survives as a factor then the Victory Gundam could be a contender, after-all it launches it's body parts as improvised missiles so that can amount to destroying several Gundam's worth of parts in just a battle.