Why would I join the army if I can’t drive a Gundam!

Chapter 225 Nothing Gained and New Ideas

What the Republic of Zeon sends is actually irrelevant to the Federation. Whether it's combat personnel or logistical personnel, the Federation has no shortage of them. What they want is to ensure that the Republic of Zeon cannot remain uninvolved.

The federal high command wasn't just a bunch of good-for-nothings who only knew how to sleep with interns, play golf, and throw parties. They had plenty of ways to deal with the Zeon problem, and these methods were even taught to them by Commander-in-Chief Gihren.

Just as the Republic of Zeon agreed to send troops to fight against the remnants of Zeon, the Federation decisively used the tactic of flattery to kill. Although it was only a maintenance squadron, in the mouth of the Federation's propaganda department, it was said that Zeon sent its most elite personnel to participate in the Federation's military operation. For this, a TV station even filmed an interview program and recorded a lot of footage. One squadron of maintenance personnel was transformed into several thousand people through various camera cuts and splicing. In any case, the Zeon maintenance personnel in the footage were all wearing protective masks, so their faces could not be seen.

Soon, the Federation's long-range strike fleet was also reorganized. The Earth Orbit Defense Fleet and the Side 3 garrison were not withdrawn from the fleet and personnel. Both of these were units that could not be moved under any circumstances. In particular, the Earth Defense Fleet had been given a real scare by the previous failed attack. To ensure that such a situation would not happen again, they gritted their teeth and deducted money from the reconstruction budget to prioritize the reconstruction of the satellite monitoring network and the orbital space station.

Therefore, the strike fleet was emptied of the elite troops of the Luna II fleet and other auxiliary fleets, and the one in charge of commanding this force was the unfortunate Rear Admiral Wallen.

Who told him that an unexpected situation occurred during his duty shift? Of course, this operation was not a punishment, but rather to give Hua Ken some experience. After all, during wartime, he was responsible for either rearguard or reconnaissance missions. Although the fleet he commanded flew around everywhere, he hadn't fought many tough battles, so he lacked confidence in his chances of promotion.

It is worth mentioning that the Federal Parliament rejected Rebil's retirement application, hoping that he could continue to serve as the Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Army, at least until around 83, when the Parliament would be re-elected and the Speaker would be replaced.

The current council clearly lacks confidence in suppressing the Federation army after Rebil leaves, so they can only continue to make Rebil work hard. The speaker even almost knelt down to Rebil to persuade him to stay.

Of course, the Speaker's ability to persuade Reibir was also partly due to his full support for Reibir's military reforms; after all, politics is the art of compromise!

The long-range strike group of the Wachner was assembled in less than a week. To ensure the combat effectiveness of the fleet, the strike group consisted of more than ten Nelson-class ships, two Trafalgar-class ships, and the Enterprise, the former ship of Makarius. In addition, there were additional Hive-class carriers. Although the total number of ships in the fleet was less than thirty, the quality was not bad.

However, the strike group fleet did not carry any Gundam mobile suits. All the space combat mobile suits currently in the hands of the Federation Forces had been on standby, so they now needed to be maintained. However, Wallen did bring the Pale Knight. After being modified by the Side 7 factory, the combat effectiveness of this mobile suit was reduced, but the burden on the pilot was also greatly reduced. It was perfect for the former slave squad commander, Kakuland, to pilot.

The Federation Army also spared no expense in its deployment of other mobile suits, with special-purpose mobile suits such as the GM GS and GM SP2 making up almost half of the total. In addition, the Federation also modified and continued to use the Zeon reconnaissance Zaku, as these were cheap and easy to use. If nothing unexpected happened, the Federation Army could continue to use them until the end of the first phase of military reforms in 0085.

Subsequently, the expeditionary strike group successfully set off and entered the Reef Space Region. During nearly a month of patrol and reconnaissance, the Federation forces discovered a lot of equipment and temporary bases left behind by the remnants of Zeon. However, these had all been abandoned and had no use value, nor were there any intelligence left behind. The area searched by the strike group was only a drop in the ocean compared to the entire Reef Space Region.

Therefore, the final strike group had no choice but to return empty-handed. However, before returning, Wakken did not forget to deploy monitoring satellites and lay space mines in the explored space. All the abandoned equipment left behind by the Zeon forces was also recovered. Since these abandoned equipment could be repaired, Wakken did not leave them behind even though the Federation did not need them. Even the space bases used for temporary resupply and repair were completely destroyed.

Although the operation yielded no results, it also showed that the remnants were now severely weakened and had little ability to act. Otherwise, they would have already taken advantage of their geographical position to engage the Federation forces in battle. How could they have hidden themselves so well, like turtles in hibernation?

Therefore, this can be considered good news. Moreover, this strike operation has set a good precedent for the Federation's subsequent operations, because the deployment of the strike group in the Reef space area is equivalent to establishing a bridgehead. The reconnaissance equipment deployed can continuously collect information to provide reference for the next operation.

With the end of the strike, Makarius finally had his time to return to work, and he is still serving as the commander of the Red Dragon battle group, which is now almost completely disbanded.

The reason for not transferring him to a new unit was not because the Federal Army Headquarters wanted to deliberately suppress him, but because they considered that he would be going to the Federal Army's advanced military academy for further studies in the second half of the year. He would leave again after only a few days in the new unit, so it was better to wait until he finished his studies and then reassign him than to go through all that trouble.

After all, the Federation Army's military reform plan has also begun to move forward. By the time Markarius finishes his studies, the results of the Federation Army's military reforms will be beginning to show. At that time, he can be assigned to an important position in the newly built combat unit.

Of course, although he was a commander without an army, it didn't mean that Makarius could leisurely drink tea and read newspapers in his office, while casually flirting with Sera, who served as his adjutant. As the Federation Army's top ace, Gop and Goyun had already arranged a series of short-term tasks for him, including short-term training courses for Federation Army ace pilots who remained in the army, as well as seminars on Federation Army military reform projects.

The latter, in particular, is extremely important because it concerns the future development of the Federation's mobile suits.

Mobile suits are, after all, a new type of weapon that has only been around for a year, just like tanks when they first appeared. No one knows what the future prospects are. Therefore, military enterprises and pilots with many ideas need to communicate in many ways to come up with a feasible solution.

Of course, the designers and pilots had one set of ideas, and the Federation generals naturally had another set, especially when it came to the Gundam issue.

Everyone knows how much of the Federation's victory in the One Year War was due to the outstanding performance of Gundam. Although the absence of Gundam does not mean that the Federation would have lost, it certainly would not have won so quickly, and the losses would have been much greater.

All of this is thanks to Gundam, and everyone knows it. But here's the problem: as unique mobile suits, the production cost of each Gundam unit is not small. Especially in the early stages of the war, Makarius and Amuro were like foolish sons of a rich man, recklessly consuming all kinds of parts. Even when a unit exploded, a new unit had to be replaced. The cost was something that Hat couldn't even imagine.

Of course, during wartime, everything is for winning, and expenses are not important at all. After all, money can be earned back if you win, but if you lose, you lose both people and money. Otherwise, the Federation would not have risked everything to produce space warships at the Gabro base and forcibly launch them into space using propellant engines.

But times have changed. The war is over, and the Federal Army can no longer build as many ships as it did during the war, regardless of the cost. Cost control has become the most frequently discussed issue since the end of the war.

Although the Federation planned to produce a few more NT1 Gundams to standardize the current Gundam models and reduce costs and maintenance burdens, a few NT1s were hardly considered mass-produced and remained relatively rare. Therefore, while continuing NT1 production, the higher-ups also raised a new requirement: to develop a mobile suit with the performance of a Gundam, but also capable of mass production like the GM, while controlling costs. Macarius was well aware of this requirement; after all, in the original timeline, the Federation high command had made a similar request, and the answer they received was the RX-81 Gilai!

From a design process perspective, both Gundam and GM were wartime emergency products. The remarkable results they achieved were naturally due to the use of materials regardless of cost during production.

Unlike the Gilai, this mobile suit was developed by the Federation based on its experience in developing the Gundam GM. After painstaking improvements and tests, it combined all the advantages of both.

In other words, it is a mobile suit that fully meets the requirements of the Federation Forces' high command, possessing the performance of a Gundam, being mass-producible like a GM, and effectively controlling costs.

Therefore, as the person who knew the most about Gundam among the participants in the seminar, Makarius naturally stepped forward first and then began to give his opinions based on the experience of his predecessors.

"As an ordinary mobile suit pilot, I think the Gale, which the Zeon developed in the later stages of the war, is actually a very good reference. The Zeon designers wanted to use its backpack conversion function to switch the attributes of the mobile suit. So, we can also use this in the design of new mobile suits, and even be bolder and more innovative!"

"Could you elaborate, Colonel?"

"Of course! Please forgive me if I've said anything wrong, after all, I'm not a professional designer!"

Makarius coughed, put on a layer of armor, and then began his performance.

"My idea is that we first need to define a specification, a unified specification for a mobile suit, and then produce different models of components. This will allow for modular switching of mission modes. This switching is not limited to a single machine, but can be applied to multiple machines, such as the GM and GM Cannon that our army currently has. Doing so will naturally maximize the service life of the machine while reducing costs!"

"The same applies to the new mechs. First, there's a mech that doesn't have any mission modes. Then there are different types of accessories: those adapted to Earth's environment, those for underwater combat, and those for space combat. Similarly, there are combat mode switching options: fully armored models equipped with heavy armor and heavy firepower, or close-combat specialized models equipped with more attitude control nozzles for easier movement!"

After Markarius finished speaking, the entire conference room fell silent. After a long while, applause erupted like a storm.

"Truly worthy of being our army's top ace!"

"Colonel, your skill level is already high enough to be a designer here!"

What Makarius said were all systematic summaries of experience, which were like a wake-up call for the R&D staff who were currently clueless about how to proceed.

"This design concept is excellent and has great reference value!"

Major General Gao Yun, who had been silent at the conference table, couldn't help but nod. As a technocrat, he naturally knew how wonderful it would be after Makarius's words. In fact, this was the very reason why he had a good impression of Makarius.

At the beginning of Project RX, Makarius emphasized the effectiveness of modularity. However, at that time, this concept was only applied to the mobile suits themselves, that is, the modularization of their internal parts, including the power unit and electronic equipment. The benefits of doing so were obvious. After the war, the Federation Forces could unify the power units and electronic equipment of the various models of GM they produced without making major modifications.

Now, the concept of modularity has expanded from the inside of the machine to the entire machine. If it continues to be developed, it can even be applied to large equipment such as warships. Gao Yun was quite excited when he thought about this.

After all, if this project can proceed smoothly, not to mention his status in the military, he could become a textbook example in the scientific community alone.

"And the new Gundam can do that too!"

"Aren't you being a little too hasty?"

When Gao Yun heard Macarius mention the new Gundam, he frowned. The new mobile suit to replace GM hasn't even been unveiled yet, and you already want a new Gundam? What, isn't the NT1 good enough?
"No, I'm just worried that we won't be able to spend all the funds. Also, I still have some immature ideas about the development of the new Gundam. The firepower of the full armor mode is still not strong enough. I think, could we make an enhanced firepower MA component that is compatible with the Gundam? When the time comes, I will pilot the Gundam and the Gundam will pilot the MA. When we go to the battlefield, one mobile suit can destroy an entire enemy fleet. Then we won't need ordinary mobile suits."

Have you considered the funding?

Gao Yun gritted his teeth and said.

"Isn't funding something we can just sit in front of Parliament with our pots and pans and expect to automatically grow out of our bank accounts?"

(End of this chapter)