The most heavily armed Mobile Suit in the One Year War, ironically, doesn’t have any arms at all. But the Big Zam doesn’t need ’em.
When it comes to the most absolute unit of all absolute units across all the Gundam franchises, there are only two real contenders: the Ball Gundam and the Big Zam. And today we’re taking a look at the Big Zam. A literal walking fortress, with firepower enough to take on a whole fleet by itself, this mobile suit represented the glory of the Principality of Zeon. And it flamed out just as spectacularly and inevitably.
The Big Zam: Design and Capabilities
The MA-08 Big Zam was developed as a prototype anti-fortress heavy assault space mobile armor. Which is a lot of words to say that the Big Zam was intended to kick down the doors of even the most heavily defended of the Earth Federation’s mobile fortresses and utterly destroy anyone unlucky enough to be in its way. The MA-08 was designed for maximum offensive power—to the point where it was the single biggest and most powerful mobile suit/tactical weapon deployed during the One Year War.
Living up to its name, the Big Zam towered over all ther mobile suits at a dizzying 59.6 meters tall. When fully armed and armored, it weighs in at nearly 2000 metric tons. It took four Minovsky Ultracompact Fusion Reactors to power the thing. Plus three pilots under normal circumstances (though, a single pilot could operate it with computer assistance).
Of course the Big Zam had big guns—including a large mega particle gun, center-mounted. Because Zeon loves to make a point. Rated at 13.9MW in power, the large mega particle gun was capable of firing a mega particle beam (go figure). That was, itself, capable of destroying multiple battleships or lesser targets in a single shot. This gun alone was capable of sinking carriers. If not for the superweapons deployed by both sides during the One Year War, it would be the most powerful gun used in the conflict.
But the Big Zam also had a big amount of guns. It was outfitted with an array of twenty-six (!!!) mega particle guns, mounted inside the clamshell of its body. This gave it a full 360 degree firing arc, providing it with a defense from attackers on all sides. Because, the Big Zam was, well, big. Maneuverable? Not so much.
To that end, it could also fire missiles. Its massive clawed feet were air-to-air missiles, each one almost the size of a mobile suit in its own right. And they weren’t explosive either; they just sort of crushed whatever they hit.
The Big Zam also employed a high tech defense system as well. It was the first mobile suit to use an I-Field generator. This released Minovsky particles in an electrostatic lattice around the Big Zam as a force field that could repel mega particle weapons at distant ranges. Still, missiles and beam weapons (used up close) could bypass the I-Field. In fact, that’s how the glorious deployment of this mobile suit came to an end.
Initially developed at Zeon’s secret asteroid fortress, A Baoa Qu, the Big Zam was meant to be a fortress cracker. It was intended for mass production. But it turns out it’s incredibly expensive to create a weapon that’s as powerful as whole fleets. A single unit cost as much as two Musai-class cruisers. So only one unit was ever completed. And that unit was commandeered by Dozle Zabi during the Battle of Solomon and two co-pilots.
The Big Zam’s big debut was to big effect: it sunk four battleships, eight cruisers, and scores of mobile suits. The Pride of Zeon was in full display, right up until Amuro Ray, in the RX-78-2 Gundam, in a joint assault with Sleggar Law in the G-Fighter, closed with the Big Zam. Law was destroyed by the anti-air missiles of Big Zam’s legs. But the Gundam was able to single-handedly take out the weapon that had caused so much devastation to the EFF.
Of course, if it were mass-produced, corners would probably have to be cut from the Big Zam. So, who can say what would have happened if Zeon had finished them?
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