MS-06 Zaku II

The MS-06 Zaku II is a mobile suit from the sci-fi anime Mobile Suit Gundam. It is based upon the earlier MS-05 Zaku I.

MS-06C Zaku II

The MS-06A Zaku II was the first production Zaku II produced in U.C. 0077 by the Principality of Zeon. The MS-06A was deemed insufficient to what Her Excellency’s Kycilia Zabi, the director in charge of the Zaku II project, had in mind. The designers went back to the drawing board. A few months later, they came back with the MS-06C design.

MS-06C Zaku II

The MS-06C Zaku II was deemed a success and put into mass production for the Zeon Military Forces. It was deployed in January U.C. 0078 and was the Zeon's main mobile suit at the outbreak of the One Year War. The C-Type, and later Zaku and non-Zaku mobile suits, typically used a 120mm drum-fed machine gun or a 280mm bazooka. Later, a 90mm machinegun became a common weapon among Zeon mobile suits.

Several pilots became famous for their actions inside the cockpit of the MS-06C Zaku II. In the Battle of Loum, Lieutenant Jr. Grade Char Aznable sunk 5 of the Earth Federation's Magellan-class battleships in his red-painted C-Type Zaku II, earning him the nickname "Red Comet". The infamous Black Tri-Stars: Gaia, Ortega, and Mash, used their C-Type Zaku II's to capture the Federation's General Revil after crippling his Magellan Battleship Ananke during the Battle of Loum. Chief Petty Officer Johnny Ridden, earned his nickname "Crimson Lighting" after sinking 3 Magellan Battleships. Lastly, The "White Wolf of Solomon" Private 1st Class Shin Matsunaga was promoted to Lieutenant Jr. Grade after destroying a Magellan-Class Battleship and 5 Salamis-Class Cruisers.

MS-06F Zaku II

However, with the signing of the Antarctic Treaty, the Zaku II C-Type was upgraded into the MS-06F Zaku II. The C-Type had been heavily shielded and strongly armored to resist nuclear radiation, which had made it much heavier. However, since the Antarctic Treaty prohibited such weapons, the C-Type was removed of nuclear radiation shielding and desginated the F-Type Zaku II.

The Principality of Zeon saw great potential within the unit for having it perform in various mission roles. The Zeon Military forces produced successful designs, decent designs, and utter faliures from the basic Zaku II design. Even Vice Admiral Dozle Zabi had his own custom Zaku II, which he took out into the Battle of Loum. His MS-06F Zaku II had ornate engravings and markings, double shoulder spiked armor, and lastly, a gigantic Heat Hawk. Even the youngest Zabi member, Garma Zabi had his own Zaku II, the MS-06Fs Zaku II. This slight variation of the Zaku II designed featured twin 40mm Vulcan guns. However, he rarely used it in battle.

The Zaku II was eventually replaced by the MS-07B Gouf for ground combat. With the debut of the MS-09 Dom and the MS-09R Rick Dom, the Zaku II was largely regarded as obsolete and the MS-09 became the new frontline mobile suit. Lastly, the MS-14A Gelgoog had all but sealed the Zaku II's fate due its high-performance and ability to use beam weaponary.

Despite many more powerful and better designed mobile suits, more and more Zaku II variations were produced. The Zaku II F-Type, the most common type of Zaku II, was later upgraded and improved into the MS-06F2 Zaku II F2 Type, which was a more powerful and improved model. Although developed by the Earth Federation, the RMS-106 Hizack was heavily based on the Zaku II design. The Zaku II's true successor, though, wouldn't come until the AMX-011 Zaku III debuted in U.C. 0088.

MS-06S Zaku II Commander Type

The MS-06S Zaku II Commander Type looks very similar to the normal Zaku, so much so, that the Earth Federation can generally only tell the difference from color scheme most pilots paint their units.

The S-Type Zaku II features a squad-leader "antenna" that is mounted on the head on the Zaku II, which is used to designate squad-leaders or higher ranking pilots from other squad-members or lower ranking pilots. It also featured a more powerful Minovsky type ultracompact fusion reactor. In turn, the S-Type Zaku II had greater thrust and acceleration. This made it incredibly dangerous in the hands of the ace pilots it was handed out to, such as the "Red Comet" Char Aznable, who sank 5 Magellan-Class Battleships in the Battle of Loum.

MS-06J Zaku II Ground Type

The original MS-06F Zaku II mobile suit was built for general-purpose-use in the One Year War, be it in space or on the ground. However, the orignal F-Type was more properly suited for space combat. The Zeon forces thus developed a better suited ground-use Zaku II and while the MS-06J Zaku II Ground Combat Type was slightly better, the MS-06J Zaku II Ground Type was by a superior improvement.

The J-Type Zaku II was built specifially for operations on Earth and lacked the proper equippment to operate in space, unlike the F-Type which could do both. The J-Type model had all vernier thrusters, which were used in space to move and correct position, removed. It also featured a slightly more powerful reactor to assist in its mobility under the full-gravity conditions of Earth. Lastly, it was also slightly waterproof that could in short-term underwater operations. However, the J-Type Zaku II was eventually replaced by the better designed MS-07B Gouf and MS-09 Dom mobile suits.

Despite the differences from the F-Type Zaku II, the J-Type was 99% visually identical to its counterpart. It also used the standard Zaku II armament from its space-bound brother. The J-Type was the main ground combat unit but there were also ground combat types variations of Zaku II known as MS-06G Zaku II Improved Ground Combat Type.

MS-06FZ Zaku II Kai

Developed very late during the One Year War as part of the "United Maintenance Plan", which was created to upgrade and improve already existing mobile suit designs to produce more streamline and effective manufacturing lines by including similar parts and systems into several different mobile suit lines. Under the "United Maintenance Plan", the MS-06FZ Zaku II Kai was built off of the original but outdated MS-06F Zaku II mobile suit line. The Zaku II Kai was not the only mobile suit line to be upgraded as part of the Plan: the MS-09RII Rick Dom II and the MS-14Jg Gelgoog Jager lines were also created.

The MS-06FZ Zaku II Kai featured a slightly more powerful Minovsky fusion reactor and a redesigned and improved cockpit. The Zaku II Kai had two different "helmet" designs. The "A-Type" helmet, which was the more common design, was designed like the typical helmet of the Zaku II series. The "B-Type" helmet was modeled after the Stahlhelm helmet used by the German army in World War II. The Zaku II Kai's main improvement came from its greatly increased thruster acceleration and overall improved maneuverability. However, this came as a drawback to the Zaku II Kai. Because of its increased thruster output, the Kai used double the fuel that its F-Type brother used. This cut the Zaku II Kai's operational battle time in half from the typical Zaku II.It also used a titanium and ceramic composite armor, which proved more resistant to both, regular ballistics and and beam weapons, it also was ligther than the previous armor, leaving more space for fuel, thrusters and additional equipment

Finally, it’s weapons were also upgraded, using a more advanced 90mm machinegun, which although fired shells of coger caliber, these had a higher penetration and an improved firing rate. The machinegun itself was equipped with a grenade launcher, which although was a one-shot weapon, it proved to be highly effective. On the other hand, it's Heat Hawk remained the same used by other Zaku units. It also could equip as well some sturm fausts, which although they were one-shot weapons, that were capable of destroying a mobile suit in a single shot. Finally, it had an improved grenade rack which made access to the grenades easier.

Due to the MS-06FZ Zaku II Kai's late introduction into the One Year War, only a handful of the units were produced. Few, if any, of the mobile suits survived the war.

MS-06F2 Zaku II F2 Type

The MS-06F2 Zaku II F2 Type was an upgraded and improved version of the original MS-06F Zaku II, introduced in the middle of the One Year War because the original F-Type Zaku II was becoming outdated with the newer, more powerful Zaku variants, and later the more efficent MS-09 Dom and MS-14A Gelgoog mobile suit lines.

The F2 Type featured a more powerful Minovsky fusion reactor, even compared to the MS-06FZ Zaku II Kais improved reactor. The Zeon's new Zaku II F2 Type had more armor placed around the cockpit's exterior, making projectile weapon attacks less effective at hitting the inner cockpit and reactor inside the torso. The F2 Type was also made significantly lighter in weight, which made the mobile suit much more fuel efficient. Because of this, the F2 Type had a greater operational time. The Zaku II F2 Type could also be outfitted with a pair of solid rocket boosters on its backpack that could give it a brief but tremendous increase in overall thruster output. The overall combination of a more powerful reactor and less weight made the F2 Type a greater combatant, making it more agile and maneuverable. With these upgrades, the F2 Type would also be on a more equal ground when the Earth Federation began to field their first mass production mobile suit, the RGM-79 GM.

Many of the older F-Types were upgraded into the improved F2 Type because it was still very cheap to mass produce the F2 Types even though they were upgraded and improved over the basic MS-06F Zaku II design. The MS-06F2 Zaku II F2 Type served until the war ended in U.C. 0080. Many of the mobile suits were kept by Zeon remnants who were just waiting for another revolution. Many of the Zaku II F2 Types were used by the Delaz Fleet during Operation Stardust. A few of the units even fell into the Federation's hands and were used for pilot training squads. After Operation Stardust, many of the F2 Types were retired and went out of service.

MS-06M Zaku Marine Type

As the One Year War dragged on the Zeon began to design several different variations of its standard mobile suits to excel in specific mission roles. The Zeonic Company created the first amphibious mobile suit, the MS-06M Zaku Marine Type, based on the Zaku II. The body was identical, except all of the joints were equipped with waterproof seals, and it mounted hydrojet engines on its backpack, arms, and legs as opposed to standard chemical rocket thrusters. The Zaku Marine Type also carried weaponry better adapted for aquatic combat, such as a SUBROC (SUBmarine ROCket) Gun, two 4-Tube 240mm rocket pods, and twin vulcans mounted in the head.

Early in development only five MS-06M Zaku Marine Types were constructed and given to the Sea Serpent submarine squadron for field testing off the Pacific Coast of North America. This test proved to be a failure, as the waterproof seals on the joints were prone to cause problems, and the Zaku body was deemed far too unstreamilined which severly reduced mobility under the sea. Unsatisfied with the design the Zeon began to produce all new marine mobile suits, and the five Zaku Marine Types were re-assigned to serve as data-gathering units. Two more Zaku Marine Types would later be constructed, now under the model number MSM-01. The seven units would be distributed to several of Zeon's submarine squads such as the Sea Serpent, Red Dolphin, Naga III, Green Siren, and Mandalay squadrons.

Only a few of the Zaku Marine Types built actually survived the One Year War, and those that did were absorbed into the Earth Federation Forces.

Variations

The following configurations never appeared in any actual animated form, but they are official Mobile Suit Variation.

MS-06D Zaku Desert Type

During the One Year War the battle field shifted from space to Earth after the the signing of the Antarctic Treaty. Because of Earth's many different terrains and environments, the Principality of Zeon had to adjust their mass production MS-06F Zaku II model to be more suitable in the varying climates.

Developed in the captured Earth Federation California Base, the MS-06D Zaku Desert Type, also known as the D-Type, was designed for Earth's desert and tropical regions. Early test units used a double antennae but when Zeon finalized the mobile suit for mass production, they dropped it down to a single antenna. The Zaku Desert Type featured several new features for its adaptioin for the new climates. The biggest change was the replacement of the Zaku II's standard thruster jetpack with a heat-dissipating radiator backpack. The D-Type was thus fitted with jet thrusters in the legs and skirt armor to make sure that it would not lose mobility and to also give it a bit of a mobility boost.

The D-Type was a great success. Overall, 114 MS-06D Zaku Desert Types were produced, with 43 two-antenna types and 71 one-antenna types. The Zaku Desert Type was well suited for its environment and operated very effectively. The Zaku D-Type would dominate Zeon's Earth forces in North Africa and the Middle East for many months until it was replaced by the more mobile and powerful MS-09F/trop Dom Tropen.

MS-06J Zaku II Ground Combat Type

During the One Year War the Principality of Zeon's most mass produced mobile suit was the MS-06F Zaku II. However, when the Zeon descended to Earth they began to produce several new variants of the F-Type Zaku II. One of these new units was the MS-06J Zaku II Ground Combat Type, which, as the name implied, was designed exclusively for ground combat.

Although different in some aspects the Zaku II Ground Combat Type was still almost 99% visually identical to the F-Type Zaku II. The chemical rocket engines and verniers used for attitude correction in space were removed from the mobile suit, and it featured a slightly more powerful ultracompact fusion reactor (to assist in mobility under the higher gravity conditions of Earth) and some water-proofing measures for limited underwater operations. Zaku II Ground Combat Types were deployed mostly in the lush jungles of the Southeast Asian front and in Australia.

The MS-06J Zaku II Ground Combat Type was slightly improved upon as the One Year War raged on. The fine-tuned MS-06J Zaku II Ground Type featured better propulsion and a higher maximum gross weight, but its sensor range was reduced by about 400 meters.

MS-06G Zaku II Improved Ground Combat Type

As the Zeonic Company developed the MS-07 Gouf ground combat mobile suit, they realized that one of its most useful features was the incorporation of thrusters in the legs to allow the unit to perform jet-assisted jumps. This new advance would be taken and applied to the old line of Zaku II Ground Type mobile suits. The retrofitted MS-06J Zaku II Ground Types which featured the additional leg thrusters and extra armor were referred to as Zaku II Improved Ground Combat Types (or G-Types for short), and proved to be much more mobile than a standard Zaku II Ground Type.

MS-06K Zaku Cannon

The MS-06K Zaku Cannon was a mass production artillery test-type developed during the One Year War. The Zaku Cannon was developed out of the Zeon's MS-06J-12 Project, which was to build an anti-aircraft Zaku II unit. That project was scrapped when the Zeons learned of the Earth Federal Force's close-combat RX-78-2 Gundam and their mid-range fire support RX-77-2 Guncannon. Thus, the scope of the project changed from anti-aircraft mobile suit to an anti-mobile suit and mid-range support unit.

The MS-06K was based on the Zeon's highly successful MS-06F Zaku II design. This new model feeatured a powerful 180mm cannon mounted on the right shoulder, the same cannon size as the Federation's RX-75-4 Guntank. The Zaku II K-Type could even be refitted with a MS-06J Zaku II Ground Type's standard backpack by removing the K-Type backpack and cannon. The Zaku Cannon also featured a 360 degree camera eye for improved vision and target acquisition. Lastly, the mobile suit had more powerful thrusters placed in its legs to overcome its increased mass. However, The Zaku Cannon suffered from poor balance from the large cannon's recoil. This problem was significant enough to cancel its production by the Zeon Military Force after a production run of only nine mobile suit units.

This wasn't the end of the Zaku Cannon though. In U.C. 0087, the Earth Federation picked up the designs. After the costly battle with the Delaz Fleet, the Federation's new and powerful mobile suits had been destroyed. They needed very cheap models to replace the advanced mobile suits that had been lost (the Titans taskforce was using up a great deal of the Federation's money for the military). Thus, the Federal Force filled their ranks with a few of the old Zeon designs, such as the MS-06K Zaku Cannon, to provide aid in their forces.

MS-06E Zaku Reconnaissance Type

The MS-06E Zaku Reconnaissance Type, or just Zaku Recon Type for short, was designed for scouting and reconnaissance missions.

These Zaku Recon Types, also known as E-Types, mounted specialized cameras and sensor systems. The Zaku II's original monoeye was replaced with a higher powered, longer ranged monoeye that actually jutted out from the head. On the shoulders and front pelvic skirt armor were other sensors and camera. The E-Type also incorparated powerful thrusters in the chest for fast retreats. Along with the upgraded thrusters, more propellant storage capacity for long-range missions and a longer opertional times. The Zaku Recon Type was completely unarmed, lacking any weapons what-so-ever. Held in its hands was a small "camera gun" for further intelligence-gather observations and for recording findings.

The MS-06E Zaku Reconnaissance Type was a good success for the Zeon Military Force. They were able to provide information from behind enemy lines and give the Zeonic forces good intel. Roughly, 100 units were produced. Many of the Zaku II E-Types survived the One Year War and were later used by the Earth Federal Forces and the Titan taskforce. The RMS-119 EWAC Zack "Eye-Zack" could be considered a distant, distant relative of the MS-06E Zaku Reconnaissance Type.

MS-06E-3 Zaku Flipper

Of the one hundred or so MS-06E Zaku Reconnaissance Types that were built during the One Year War, a handful were further upgraded into the MS-06E-3 Zaku Flipper. The Zaku Flipper was designed to play the role of a reconnaissance and scouting unit. The Zaku Flipper mounted the higher performance thruster array of the MS-06S Zaku II Commander Type, giving it three times the speed of a standard MS-06 Zaku II, as well as two additional thrusters in the chest and larger capaity fuel tanks.

To properly fill its role as a scouting unit the Zaku Flipper featured several external cameras in both of its shoulders and its front pelvic armor, as well as high-tec sensory equipment and sonars in its head. However, the Zaku Flipper's standard Zaku head was replaced by a more sophisticated design, with extra equipment on a swiveling pivot so it could quickly flip backwards without having to rotate the head, or move past the fins projecting up from behind the Zaku Flippers shoulders.

The Zaku Flipper's most distinguishing feature was the six fin-like projections on its backpack. These six fins were directional laser and sonic sensors that had the quirky habit of making flapping and flipping motions as they moved to acquire and track objects. The flipping motions of the fins on the Zaku Flipper's backpack is what earned the unit the nickname "Flipper" amongst the Zeon ranks.

MS-06F Zaku Minelayer

The Zaku Minelayer is not a new mobile suit per se, but actually just a standard MS-06F Zaku II equipped with a different style backpack.

With this new backpack the Zaku II is adapted to play the role of a minelaying unit. The new backpack houses several drums filled with space mines, with twelve mines packed into every drum. The backpack also has a few additional manuevering thrusters and carries five time the amount of fuel as a standard Zaku II. However, the Zaku Minelayer requires a special loading area on a Musai to reload, launch, or land.

MS-06F Zaku II Dozle Zabi Custom

This was the customized MS-06F designed for Vice Admiral Dozle Zabi, the commander of the Zeon's Space Attack Force, which Dozle used for his infamous frontline "inspections". It is similar to the standard MS-06F Zaku II, but with a spiked shoulder armor on both arms, ornate gold engravings and trim all over its frame, and a special large heat tomahawk melee weapon. Also, due to Dozle Zabi's huge size, he had to have the cockpit specially enlarged.

MS-06Fs Zaku II Garma Zabi Custom

This was a limited edition MS-06Fs built for Captain Garma Zabi, commander of the Zeon's Earth Attack Force, similar to the standard MS-06F Zaku II, but with four 40mm machineguns in the head for increased effectiveness in close combat.

When Garma Zabi was assigned to Earth he brought his Zaku II Custom with him, however he rarely sortied with it after being assigned to a leadership role.

MS-06RP/MS06R-1/MS06R-1A Zaku II High Mobility Type

As the One Year War dragged on the Zeon engineers strived to create a high-performance unit to replace their aging space fleet of MS-06F Zaku IIs, which were quickly being outclassed by the Earth Federation's new RGM-79 GM series of mobile suits. The first of the new improved units created was the MS-06RP Zaku II High Mobility Test Type. The Zaku II High Mobilty Test Type added several thrusters around edges of the leg armor, giving it greater speed, acceleration, and mobility, and larger propellant tanks increased the unit's fuel storage capacity.

Only two of these prototype Zaku II High Mobility Test Type units would be constructed, and both of them would be piloted by Zeon ace pilot, and former Zeonic Company mobile suit developer, Elliot Lem. After Major Lem gave the new unit his personal approval the MS-06RP underwent a few very minor modifications and was slated for mass-production as the MS-06R-1 Zaku II High Mobility Test Type.

A total of twenty-two MS-06RP Zaku II High Mobility Test Type were constructed and given to some of Zeon's notable ace pilots. One such unit was given to Shin Matsunaga, who earned the nickname the "White Wolf of Solomon" because of his exploits in his white Zaku II High Mobility Test Type around the asteroid fortress of Solomon.

Overall the Zaku II High Mobility Test Type proved to be an incredibly popular design. With increased armor and fuel capacity the design was a vast improvement over the standard Zaku II.

After the successful release of the MS-06R-1 Zaku II High Mobility Test Type the Zeon engineers began to receive feedback from the pilots of the new units on ways the design of the mobile suit could be further improved upon. The new ideas were incorporated into the next release of the MS-06R-1 Zaku II High Mobility Type. The Zaku II High Mobility Type had some minor engine problems corrected, and the larger capacity propellant tanks were removed and replaced with exchangeable fuel cartridges, much quicker to reload and refuel.

A total of fifty-six Zaku II High Mobility Types would be constructed, with half of the existing Zaku II High Mobility Test Types upgraded to the R1-A model. The Zaku II High Mobility Type became a highly sought after unit by many notable ace pilots such as the Black Tri-Stars, Eric Mansfield, Masaya Nakagawa, and Shin Matsunaga. But despite its incredible popularity and high performance the suit was considered too difficult for rookie pilots to handle, as well as too expensive for a wide mass production run.

Other variations

• MS-06T Zaku Trainer Type
• MS-06V Zaku Tank
• MS-06V-6 Zaku Tank Green Makaku
• MS-06W Worker Zaku
• MS-06Z Psycommu System Zaku
• MS-11 Action Zaku

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