Gundam Vehicle Analysis- Magellan Class Battleship (Origin Version)
So I decided to make more of these, now that finals are finally letting up. I’ve been watching a lot of Gundam, so I decided to do some ships from the Universal Century. Now, there are a lot of different takes on the Magellan class over the various UC shows. Almost every one, be it the original show, Igloo, or the Origin OVAs, has slightly different armaments, hull lines, and sizes. I’m going to the Origin OVA version because it’s the one that most recently appeared on screen, and because it’s the prettiest variation IMHO. With that out of the way, let’s begin!
Introduction
The Magellan-class Space Battleship was the primary heavy capital ship of the Earth Federation during the One Year War. While superior to just about every warship in the Zeon arsenal except for the Gwazine-class battleship and the massive Dolos-class mobile fortress, Magellans were highly vulnerable to attack from Mobile Suits, which greatly limited their combat effectiveness. Despite this, Magellans served throughout the One Year War as the Federation’s main heavy strike unit, spearheading assaults and serving as flagships for fleet commanders. Unlike its counterpart the Salamis-class cruiser, the Magellan’s hull proved difficult to easily upgrade to meet the demands of Mobile Suit combat, and Magellan-class vessels were phased out of service by UC 0087.
Propulsion
The Magellan’s main drives consist of four engines of an unknown type mounted on the rear of the ship. While these drives are more than sufficient for maneuvering in space, they lack the thrust to propel the vessel out of Earth’s gravity. When launching into space, a specially designed booster stage is attached to the rear of the vessel. Once orbital or escape velocity is reached, the booster shuts down and detaches and the Magellan’s main engines engage.
For course corrections, the Magellan carries a large number of thrusters mounted around the hull. These thrusters are concealed behind armored hatches until they are used.
Armament-
The Magellan-class battleship is extremely heavily armed. The main armament of the vessel consists of two different calibers of Mega Particle Cannons. The heavier caliber of cannon is mounted in two turrets on the bow of the vessel, above and below the nose.
The smaller caliber of Mega Particle Cannon is mounted in five dual turrets. One is positioned on the dorsal side of the hull just in front of the bridge.
The other four turrets are mounted on the flanks of the ship, two to each flank.
In addition, the Magellan carries a quartet of bow torpedo tubes.
A eight-weapon battery of Vertical Launch Missiles rounds out the Magellan’s suite of offensive weapons.
If it comes under attack by fighters or mobile suits, the Magellan is not completely defenseless. Close-in defense consists of sixteen dual AA machine gun turrets mounted on either flank and two quad turrets mounted behind the bridge.
While these weapons are sufficient for defense against conventional fighters, they lack the accuracy and weight of fire to successfully engage Mobile Suits.
Durability
The Magellan class is extremely tough. At the Battle of Loum, these vessels proved to be the greatest obstacles for the Zeon forces to destroy. While the Salamis-class cruisers or Lepanto-class frigates could be dispatched in one or two missile hits, Magellan-class vessels remained functional despite extreme damage.
Although they could not reliably hurt Mobile Suits, those same Mobile Suits lacked the firepower to reliably kill the Magellans without support from the Mega Particle Cannons of the Zeon Musai-class cruisers. Even then, a kill was far from a sure thing. General Revil’s flagship, the Ananke, remained functional despite taking direct hits at point-blank range from Dozle Zabi’s flagship Valkyrie, which possessed heavier Mega Particle Cannons than the average Musai.
Variants
The Magellan class possesses one major variant in the Origin timeline. Generals Revil and Tianem commanded from a specialized variant of the Magellan. These vessels, most notably the Ananke and Titan, replaced the Vertical Launch System of the standard design with an additional secondary Mega Particle Cannon turret.
That’s all I have for the Magellan. I’ll probably make the Salamis analysis post next, although not gonna make any promises about when that’ll happen.