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

Chapter 297 Price War!
Although most Space Force commanders preferred Falkwellton's Rakeram and Cramp-class aircraft carriers, evaluation by both companies was still necessary to ensure fairness in the bidding process.

Whether it is good or bad, it must be clearly presented to everyone in order to draw a conclusion that is convincing to the public.

Otherwise, it could end up as a messy legal battle, creating a huge mess.

Both Falkwellton and Anaheim had no objections to this. The former was full of confidence. When it came to building ships for the Federation Army, they had never been afraid of anyone. Moreover, the design of the new ship was something they had specifically asked people to do at the grassroots level of the Federation Army to consult with the military.

This suggestion, of course, came from an unknown but talented and accomplished brigadier general who was not seeking fame or fortune but only to build a modern federal army, from a professional perspective. Although the idea was rough and vague, the designers at Falkwellington were anything but rough. They only needed a direction, and they were able to use their initiative to get the next task done.

Makarius naturally had high hopes for the Racairam-class and Kramp-class warships. Although they lacked a circulating gravity living area and were not as comfortable as the Agama, their firepower, range, and even hull layout were top-notch, with considerable potential for modification. To put it bluntly, the Federation could use the Racairam for as long as the Magellan!

After the warship bidding ended, it was the turn of the mobile suits, which was also a huge project. The Federation Army currently has more than 10,000 GMs in service, not counting the nearly 1,000 special-purpose mobile suits. Although these GMs underwent uniform modifications after the war to improve their combat capabilities, most of the GMs' mobile suits are still from the One Year War era.

Under the intense service conditions, the GM-C units of the front-line troops were naturally in poor condition, so these units also needed to be upgraded or replaced.

The competitors for this project were naturally the Naval Strategic Research Institute and Anaheim. The former mainly promoted the Riot GM, which was already in the hands of the Combat Technology Center and a small number of elite pilots. Under the careful refinement of the Naval Strategic Research Institute, the specifications and indicators of this machine far exceeded those of the same machine in another timeline, and it was even more advanced than the GM 2 that entered service later.

Its power reactor has reached 1600kw. Not to mention, the Naval Strategic Research Institute also equipped it with a new BOWA·XBR-M84a beam rifle redesigned and produced by BOWA Corporation. This is BOWA Corporation's first rifle equipped with an e-cap energy magazine for a conventional mobile suit. In other words, it can be used like the custom rifles used by Gundam, where you can simply replace the magazine when the energy is depleted.

As for the other models, they are also equipped with weapons and armored attachments, including missile launchers on the shoulders and waist, and additional backpack components on the back for functional conversion to use additional high-powered beam sniper rifles or beam rocket launchers.

It can be said that the core achievements of the Naval Strategic Research Institute are all gathered here, creating such a fighting machine.

Anaheim was also well-prepared. After the GP project was caught off guard by the Naval Institute for Strategic Studies, Anaheim launched a small-scale internal leap forward, including but not limited to awarding bonuses and lunar villas to project teams that produced results, and hanging banners inside the company with slogans such as "Work hard for 180 days to surpass the Naval Institute for Strategic Studies".

The result they produced was the YRMS-106 pilot experimental high-Zaku!

Yes, that's right. Anaheim prepared Zeon-style mobile suits for the Federation, bearing the name of the Principality of Zeon. Of course, this is only in appearance. In reality, the High Zaku is not a successor to the Zaku series. It is a product of Anaheim combining Federation technology and Zeon technology. Speaking of which, the inspiration for developing this mobile suit can be thanked to Fock Wellington, because the Alexander-class heavy cruiser designed for the Federation Army was a product combining the technologies of both sides.

"Damn it, these Anaheim bastards, they're trying to disgust me with a one-eyed Zaku, aren't they!"

Overall, this design proposal still displeased a considerable number of people in the Federation Army. After all, the relationship between the Principality of Zeon and the Federation is what it is. Even if you are designing a brand new mobile suit using the technologies of both sides, there is no need to make it look like this.
"Don't just look at the surface! It might be the bones of a Zaku-Kimagine!"

Makarius was not surprised at all by the appearance of this machine. After all, Anaheim had absorbed so many Zeon technicians, and they had to make use of them. Moreover, in terms of design concept, the High Zaku was still very advanced, provided that Makarius was not around.

Without Macarius, the High Zaku would have been the Federation's first mobile suit to widely utilize a full-circle cockpit and linear seats. However, after the NT1 Gundam proved its worth on the battlefield, all special mobile suits and Gundams manufactured by the Federation after the war adopted this design. Therefore, the High Zaku, which now uses this design, is no longer the first mobile suit to try this approach.

Even so, it was the first machine to combine Zeon technology and Federation technology.

"If that's the case, why not design it to look like Jim from the beginning?"

"Probably because it's a Gauzaku!"

Makarius told a lame joke.

Unfortunately, while the Gaozagu was acquired, the Titans had no chance to emerge. The extremists in the military were currently fighting to the death with the remnants in the intelligence agency's special forces. For this reason, the Federation even specially equipped the special forces with two Pegasus-class ships.

"But then again, for the remnants of Zeon, isn't the Federation military's Gozaku also a form of NTR?"

Of course, it's not surprising that the appearance of the High Zaku doesn't mean that Macarius will allow this machine to be put into large-scale service, because although the High Zaku has a very new concept design, its combat power is rather weak.

Even Anaheim itself knew that because their design plan for the weapon configuration of the High Zaku did not include a full beam option, it was either a beam rifle equipped with a heat axe or a ballistic rifle equipped with a beam saber!

The reason for this is naturally due to design issues. The Federation's mobile suits use field motor technology, while Zeon uses fluid pulse technology. Regardless of which technology is stronger or weaker, energy consumption is a major factor. Moreover, the High Zaku uses both technologies at once, and the power reactor configured by Anaheim Electronics only has a power of 1428kw. In addition, the pulse converter unexpectedly occupies space inside the mobile suit, and the secondary power system that provides energy for the beam gun has to be exposed on the wrist.

This means that if two beam weapons are forcibly used, the beam rifle's current circuit breaker will activate, causing it to idle without energy and rendering the weapon unusable!
However, the High Zaku is not without its advantages. The two power systems greatly enhance its agility, to the point that it can even be compared with the Riot GM, which uses a completely new frame structure. In addition, Anaheim Electronics also imitated the design of the early Federation GM during the One Year War, using Gundanium alloy for the cockpit and important parts, and titanium alloy for non-critical parts. Its cost is much cheaper than that of the Riot GM!

In addition to the Gozaku, Anaheim also presented a comprehensive upgrade plan for the Federation's existing GM-C, preparing to upgrade its power reactor and replace its defensive layout with the same as the Gozaku, clearly indicating that it was going to start a price war!

What else could Makarius say? Anaheim was really ruthless. In order to seize the market, they had no shame. However, there was nothing wrong with what they did. After all, someone always had to occupy the low-end market. The Naval Strategic Research Institute focused on mid-to-high-end mobile suits and had little interest in the low-end market, let alone the energy. After all, modifying these GMs was not difficult, but it was very laborious.

Marcarius was very tempted by the upgrades and modifications to more than 10,000 GMs. After all, the price of the riot GMs was considerable, and more importantly, it would be a waste to entrust the performance of the riot GMs to ordinary Federation military pilots.

Although the Federation Army has money now, it's still best to save where possible. While it's not impossible to build a full-spec riot control GM, in a few years, the full-spec riot control GM will also need to be upgraded and replaced.

Therefore, the riot GM produced by the Naval Strategic Research Institute was only about two thousand units. This number was enough to replace the elite and front-line troops of the entire army. The special-purpose mobile suits that they replaced could be repaired and handed over to the second-line troops. In addition, Anaheim's GM 2 improvement program could also ensure that everyone had a new mobile suit to fly!

However, this wasn't the entire order from the Naval Strategic Research Institute. The Army, Navy, and Air Force had reserved an additional quota of at least six hundred transformable mobile suits, awaiting the completion of Pumpkinpie's testing and their entry into service. But overall, the Naval Strategic Research Institute didn't manage to get its fill of this military spending pie; Anaheim Electronics still managed to take a significant slice.

Well, it's worth mentioning that Tsunami Heavy Industries' Garibaldi also participated in the Federation's mobile suit tender, but was eliminated in the first round because its design was too extreme, overemphasizing mobility, resulting in its protective performance being even inferior to the High Zaku. Although it could perform well in the hands of elite pilots, the problem is that Federation elite pilots are meant to pilot riot control GMs!
However, this bidding process greatly encouraged a group of technical personnel at Jinlang Heavy Industries, giving them the motivation to continue their research and design even stronger mobile suits.

With the bidding process over, the Pei Zeng Combat Technology Center, after its vacation, became busy again. On one hand, it continued the training of Federation elite pilots, and on the other hand, Anaheim's new mobile suits were to be sent here for testing!

Although the Federation Army chose the GM-2 upgrade from Anaheim, it hesitated over the High Zaku. After all, this thing looked just like the Zaku and used new technology. For the military, new technology is not actually that popular. Stability and reliability are the most important things. After all, there are plenty of cases where new technology fails!

The technical team responsible for the Gozaku in Anaheim is still Nina's GP01 team. After all, even though Anaheim is a large and powerful organization, it doesn't want to pay for the travel expenses of another team.

"Are you really going to make us drive this thing?"

This was the first reaction of most of the pilots at the Combat Technology Center when they saw the prototype High Zaku stand up from the transport vehicle. For them, the concept of the Zaku being the enemy was deeply ingrained in their minds. Even when they flew the Zaku in their daily lives, it was out of necessity to play the role of the enemy.

However, now that they know this machine is going to become standard equipment for the Federation Army, many people are still a little unaccustomed to it.

"We have to give it a try. As a pilot, shouldn't I learn more about piloting various types of machines?"

Marcarius stood aside, constantly urging them on. The group looked left and right, and finally, it was Apolly, one of Char's men, who was the first to crawl inside.

Because the operating system had not been modified to be tailored to his individual needs, and Apoli did not perform any significant maneuvers with the machine, he left the cockpit with a melancholy expression after experiencing it for a few minutes.

"So, is the user experience really that bad?"

Xia was puzzled; it was the first time he had ever seen the other person show such an expression.

"Sir, if our... enemy had used this thing during the One Year War, the outcome might have been very different!"

"what?"

Xia was taken aback at first, then realized that this "Zaku" was clearly not the Zaku they had imagined!

So, with mixed feelings, he went up and tried it out. The driving feel of the High Zaku was indeed a pleasant surprise. It was silky smooth. It could be said that compared to this thing, the Zeon Zaku was just a piece of trash.

With two pioneers already on board, the remaining pilots no longer hesitated and immediately surrounded the test units sent by Anaheim.

The more people disliked it before, the more delicious it is now.

"Alright, just based on how it handles, I'm not against it being put into service!"

"Indeed, this is much easier to drive than Jim!"

"Sir, let us try out the weapons again!"

"no problem!"

Makarius nodded, offering no opinion but having been waiting for this moment!

"??? No, are you kidding me?"

Looking at the weapon presented to him, Char, who was still the first to receive it, couldn't help but take off his glasses in the cockpit and check it again and again.

"What era are we living in? How can they still have these damn 120mm bang-bang cannons?!"

Char couldn't hold back either. Such a good mobile suit, yet he had to use the 120mm machine gun that the old Zaku used. It was like putting a motorcycle engine on a sports car.

"Furthermore, what does this combination mean? If you can't use a beam saber, you can't use a beam rifle, and if you can't use a beam rifle, you can't use a beam saber. Is this still a mobile suit?"

"That's what Xia asked."

"Then we'll have to ask Anaheim, since they designed it!"

Marcarius shrugged and then said!
(End of this chapter)