RX-104FF Penelope

[Mafty]

So why did the Earth Federation build the Penelope? Was it a testbed? Or did they suspect the Mafty group was planning something?

[gxb]

I always thought it was an early test bed for sticking a Minovsky Flight System in a mobile suit, which is why it’s so big

[Seto Kaiba]

On a quick skim of Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: Mechanics & World, I'm not seeing any mention of a conflict specific rationale behind the development of the Odysseus/Penelope.

Great Mechanics Mobile Suit Collection 12 asserts that the RX-104 was sort of... I guess you could call it a vanity project? The Odysseus and Penelope were something Anaheim developed as a sort of commemoration of 20 years of Gundam development projects. They weren't built to any specific set of military requirements. (It asserts this is part of why it struggled against the more technologically complete Xi Gundam.)

[Mafty]

Makes sense, plus as the early UC 100s were a period of realtive peace, they probably thought they didn't need to focus as much on offensive capabilities.