Weapons of the European Union

European Union Military

Throughout the colonization and breakdown phases of the Union's voyage into the stars common defence policy produced a vast array of standardized equipment. While most equipment, ships, aerospace and mobile suits are simply the already mentioned equipment, either old or new, freedom of colonial defence procurement has ensured that a significant percentage happen to be locally built versions of "standard" equipment or derived or completely original weapons.

Mobile Suits

EU Mobile Suit history begins on January 18th 2186 when the first Ge-02 Lambert became operational. Since the war years, and the introduction of the extremely successful Ge-03C Leopold, EU mobile suit development has been spurred to produce lethal new generations of MS.

Ge-03C Leopold Main Battle Frame

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Leopold Prototype with Linear Rifle

Throughout the 2160s and 2170s military observers from the European Union watched with some interest as the Zodiac Colonies fielded their first Peltast combat frames on remote frontier battlefields. While these strange humanoid fighting vehicles were a favorite topic of discussion in EU military circles the general consensus was that the Peltast and any future successors to it would remain nothing more than a curiosity of dubious effectiveness against the powerful conventional forces fielded by the Union and the other Terran superpowers. At the outbreak of war with ZOCU in 2185 no real effort had been made on the part of the EU to develop its own combat frame technology.

Although the Peltast proved to be more capable than predicted, it was the superior capabilities of the much more advanced Hoplite model of combat frame that quickly began to alarm European battlefield commanders and staff officers. The highly capable Hoplite was superior to nearly every existing space and ground combat platform in the EU's arsenal and played a major role in nearly every one of the Union's military disasters of the war's first year. Crash upgrade programs for the existing space fighters and armored fighting inventories could serve only to lessen future blows, it was obvious that new weapons were required as quickly as they could possibly be put on the field. Amongst the projects authorized in early 2186 was a program for combat frame development.

The EU began its combat frame program with nothing more than a handful of examples in the form of several captured Zodiac machines and a spattering of stolen technical documents. Simply copying ZOCU designs outright was absolutely out of the question as neither the Union's military or political leadership were willing to suffer such a blow to their state's pride. A completely European machine would have to be developed even if the process would take considerably longer. Engineers from several important defense contractors such as France's GIAT and Germany's Rheinmetall were brought in to tackle the problem and by 2187 had built and tested a mass production prototype, the Ge-02 Lambert.

Nearly everything about the Ge-02 proved to be a disappointment. The Lamberts lackluster performance compared unfavorably even with the decades old Peltast and its lack of power generation limited its armament to an unacceptable degree. Although a number of Lamberts were produced and a few of those even saw limited deployment, it was deemed to be a failure and passed over in favor of new conventional platforms. But the Lambert was a valuable learning experience that paved the way for future success. Using the lessons from their lackluster creation most of the same design team would move on to begin work on what would eventually become the Ge-03 Leopold.

In 2188 the Zodiac Forces archived another spectacular success with the unveiling of the Sarissa, a Hoplite variant of such increased ability that it was initially believed to be a completely new model. Once again there were no available craft capable of matching it in the EU's arsenals and the mere thought that this deadly new machine and its particle rifle might be mass produced caused a considerable amount of worry in the Union's high command. While such fears proved unfounded additional resources were diverted to the combat frame development project and in early 2189 the first prototype of their new model was ready for testing.

The Leopold surpassed all expectations. Fast, agile, and heavily armored it clearly had the makings of a superior machine worthy of Europe's proud military traditions. Although its electromotive linear rifle was certainly inferior to the megaparticle gun used by the Sarissa, in all other respects the Leopold could be considered a comparable machine. Approved for production, the first mass produced Ge-03s had reached the front lines in time to be sent into action with the Zweiker's fleet during the final push onward to victory in the skies above Haraway's World. Their considerable abilities came as an unpleasant shock to many Zodiac pilots who had now long believed that their machines would never be equaled by their European foes.

Following the Armistice the EU has continued production of additional Leopolds in limited numbers. Although the combat frame has still failed to supplant the position of conventional weapons within the EU's arsenal it has through the success of the Leopold won a permanent place alongside them.

Saint-Étienne A1 Autocuirasser (Ge-03C-O Leopold)

With the success of the Leopold Dopple in its first trials and early combat missions the Outremonde Ministry of Defence placed huge orders; however production had to be slotted towards equipping the Deep Space Fleet first. While Outremondes own industry began mass production of the Leopold for both its own battallions, and to supply the needs of the Deep Space Fleet, several factories not being used for Leopold production were turned over to produce Leopold's for Outremonde itself. The Leopold Dopple was tested by the 63rd Test Battallion on Outremonde. From its observations and recommendations Saint-Étienne offered up a modified version of the Leopold for indigenous production. Named after the famous French town with a long history of war production the company had been involved in the effort to develop the Lambert and Leopold allowing it enough experience to successfully develop what might have been the first Leopold variant in EU. While not outstripping Leopold production, or use, on Outremonde the B1 became the originator of most of Outremonde MS development, which essentially comes out to be a regional claim to technical achievement when the A1 is essentially a modified Leopold.

Stats (Combat Frame)

Speed: 5+6

Agility: 5+3+5

Evasion: 4+3+2.5

Armor: 6+5

Hits: 4

Reactor Output/Usage: 16/13

Component Space: 12

External Carriage: 12

Frame Expansion x2

Internal Components: 12+4+4

4 Fusion Reactors (4 Space, +16 power)

6 Thrusters (6 Space, -6 Power, +6 Speed, +3 Agility, +3 Evasion)

5Verniers (5 Space, -5 power, +5 Agility, +2.5 Evasion)

5 Armor (5 space, +5 Armor, -1.65 agility)

External Equipment (A): 12+2+2

1 x Alpha Axe (-2 spaces)

1 x AMS (-2 Space)

1 x ERA (-2 spaces, +1 Armor, -0.33 agility)

1 x 3 Cluster Missiles (-2 Spaces)

1 x Autorailgun (-8 Spaces, -2 Power)

External Equipment (B): 12+2+2

1 x Alpha Axe (-2 spaces)

1 x AMS (-2 Space)

1 x ERA (-2 spaces, +1 Armor, -0.33 agility)

1 x Heavy Railgun (-10 spaces, -3 power)

Operators

Outremonde (Producer)

War Ships

Drake Class Battleship (Mark VII Refit)

See also The EU: Two Centuries On, Weapons of the ZOCU War.