Mobile Suit Engineering and Operation
Author: Tommy

Beam Weapons

The new weapons derived from Minovsky physics are referred to by the generic term "beam weapons." There are actually two distinct varieties of beam weapon - one that uses regular Minovsky particles, and another that employs the mega particles formed by fusing positive and negative Minovsky particles. As beam weapons continue to evolve, the technology is used to produce defensive devices and even propulsion systems.


The Mega Particle Cannon

The ubiquitous mega particle cannon - variously referred to as the beam cannon, beam gun, mega beam cannon, ad nausea - is the standard armament of the Gundam world's warships and mobile armors. This weapon fires a focused beam of massive, high-velocity mega particles, which cannot be deflected by magnetic fields and tears through any conventional armor material.

To create the mega particles, a cannon-toting vehicle must first gather Minovsky particles from the vehicle's fusion reactor. The Minovsky particles are collected in a device called an energy condenser, where they are compressed in a high-density I-field until they fuse into mega particles. The performance of the mega particle cannon is thus limited by the reactor's ability to produce Minovsky particles.

The Beam Rifle

In order to work around the mega particle cannon's energy demands, the E-cap (a contraction of "energy capacitor") is developed. This device stores Minovsky particles in a high-energy compressed state, so that only a small amount of additional energy is required to trigger their fusion into mega particles. The E-cap is charged by energy condensers at the mobile suit's home base or carrier ship, and then functions like a battery until its supply of particles is exhausted, at which point the weapon becomes useless.

The limited capacity of the E-cap proves to be a significant shortcoming. The RX-78 Gundam, for example, can only fire about 15 shots from its beam rifle before exhausting the E-cap's supply. Shortly after the end of the war, the beam rifle is further refined to use a removable E-cap module called an E-pack. A mobile suit equipped with spare E-packs can thus swap them in during a battle to replenish its beam rifle's particle supply.

Mega Particle Cannon Variants

The basic principles of the mega particle cannon and beam rifle are employed by a long list of spin-offs. Here are a few variations on this weapon design…

The self-sufficient mega bazooka launcher combines a powerful mega particle cannon with a dedicated reactor. The mega bazooka launcher even has its own thruster system, making it independently mobile - the only thing it needs the mobile suit for is aiming.

The Mega Rider, a development of the mega bazooka launcher that also serves as a support craft for transporting mobile suits, has its own cockpit so that it can be operated independently. Meanwhile, the hyper mega launcher is a scaled-down version of the mega bazooka launcher. Lacking its own propulsion system, the mega launcher must be carried by the mobile suit.

The hyper mega particle cannon is a powerful built-in mega particle cannon, powered by the mobile suit's own reactors. A highly compact mega condenser produces its mega particles. However, firing the weapon depletes the energy reserves, rendering it powerless and immobile.

The mobile suit's reactor likewise powers the beam smartgun. The frame structure that connects the beam smartgun to the mobile suit serves as a conduit for both energy and sensor data, making the weapon highly accurate.

The Variable Speed Beam Rifle or VSBR, a new type of beam weapon introduced and installed lets the pilot change the velocity of the emitted mega particles. A slow beam produces increased raw damage over a wider area, while a fast beam yields higher penetration - in this mode; it's capable of piercing a beam shield. Despite the "beam rifle" nomenclature, the VSBR is actually connected directly to the mobile suit's reactor. It's typically integrated into the mobile suit's movable frame structure, and is equipped with apogee motors to increase the mobile suit's maneuverability.

The beam launcher, or beam bazooka, is another application of this speed-control technology. This bazooka-like weapon powered by an ordinary E-pack rather than by the mobile suit's reactor, fires slow-moving mega particles for increased damage.

The Generative Beam Rifle Device, or G-BRD has it's own built-in reactor to power it, including supplemental thrusters enabling it to serve as a booster for a core fighter.

Mega beam rifles with 'mega particle acceleration technology' are capable of firing on ground targets from the stratosphere, quite possibly the most powerful type of weapon ever wielded by a mobile suit.

The Beam Saber

Unlike the beam weapons discussed above, the beam saber doesn't use mega particles. Instead, it emits high-energy Minovsky particles to form a blade-shaped I-field, and then fills this I-field shell with superheated plasma to produce a lethally effective cutting blade. The Minovsky particles are stored by E-cap in the beam saber's hilt, which is recharged by the mobile suit's reactor when the saber is returned to its socket. Thus, once activated, beam sabers don't rely on the mobile suit's reactor and can be thrown or discarded as decoys.

As the beam saber's I-field enclosure repels plasma, it not only keeps the blade's contents in but also keeps other blades' contents out, allowing one beam saber to block another. And, since the I-field can be formed into a variety of simple shapes, it's pretty trivial to create exotic variants like the beam tomahawk, beam sword, beam sword/ax, beam fan, beam mace, beam cutter and beam tonfa - glorified beam sabers, all. Here are a couple of less trivial spin-offs.

The beam jitte attached to some beam rifles is a specialized beam saber designed to catch enemy beam sabers, allowing the mobile suit to ward off enemy blades on those occasions when there isn't time to draw its own full-sized beam saber.

The whimsical beam flag used by command mobile suits is strictly for show. This uses beam saber technology to generate a customized symbol so that their underlings can easily identify squadron leaders.

The Beam Shield

The first defensive application of beam saber technology is the beam barrier projected by fin funnels. This barrier creates a geometric shell around the mobile suit, with a fin funnel at each vertex and planes of energy akin to beam saber blades forming the surfaces of the shell. Unlike the classic I-field barrier, this beam barrier deflects physical attacks and missiles as well as beam weapons. It can, however, be collapsed by a sufficiently powerful attack.

The decreased size and increased power output of modern mobile suits make it possible to use a simplified version of this barrier on all mobile suits. This beam shield is composed of a simple plane of energy, radiating from a central generator unit, which can be used like a physical shield to deflect enemy attacks. Since the edges of the beam shield are as deadly as a beam saber blade, the mobile suit's computer automatically deactivates sections of the shield that would otherwise lop off the mobile suit's own limbs.

Though it's limited to a single direction - and, like its beam barrier ancestor, can be collapsed by a powerful attack - the beam shield's lower energy requirements and effectiveness against every type of weapon make it a perfectly satisfactory alternative to the I-field barrier. Even some warships are equipped with beam shields.

The mega beam shield has a central generator unit; it uses three remote-controlled barrier bits to form the vertices of an oversized beam shield.

Beam Weapons as Propulsion Systems

The sophisticated technology of the beam shield is eventually applied to create a combined defensive device and propulsion system. The beam rotor generates a shield using spinning beam blades rather than a solid plane of energy. As a side effect, the rotating blades create lift in exactly the same fashion as a helicopter. This allows a beam rotor-equipped mobile suit to fly through the air without expending its finite propellant supply, while using just a fraction of the power required by a Minovsky Craft system.

A far more advanced use of beam weapon technology is the incredible Minovsky drive system. Much like the ion drive contemplated by real-world physicists, this system uses the particle-acceleration technology introduced by the VSBR (Variable Speed Beam Rifle) to boost Minovsky particles to relativistic speed. Now moving at a substantial fraction of the speed of light, the accelerated particles are redirected by an external I-field to create up to multiple times the speed of light of thrust in the desired direction.

Common Weapon Types

Ballistic Weapons

Vulcans: All Gundams are equipped with vulcans on either side of their head. These weapons are generally used for anti-infantry and light armor purposes. Roughly 60mm in diameter, vulcan rounds cannot seriously damage a Mobile Suit, save a critical hit, such as a main camera or actuator


Machine Cannons: Most Gundams come equipped with machine cannons on their shoulders. These rapid-firing machine guns range from 90mm to 120mm in diameter, which is equivalent to a modern tank round. Machine cannons can destroy mass-produced and lightly armored Mobile Suits, but could do very little damage against another Gundam or a Tallgeese-type Mobile Suit.

Rifles: A standard rifle fires 105mm shells fully-automatically, with a magazine size of 100 rounds. Rifles are generally more accurate than machine cannons, and can carry more ammunition. They are meant to take abuse and can fire even under harsh conditions like a desert environment.

Dober Gun: Firing a large, explosive projectile at high speeds, the dober gun can completely destroy a common Mobile Suit with a single round. The dober gun also seems capable to fire beam or missile projectiles with little external modification to the weapon. Any mobile suit can use the dober gun, however, the recoil from this weapon can cause stress on the mobile suit's joints if it wasn't designed to use the dober gun, although the dober gun is already fitted with a standard muzzle brake to lessen the effects of recoil.

Beam Weapons

Beam Guns: The beam gun is a weak and inaccurate weapon with a moderate rate of fire. Although more powerful than a ballistic weapon due to its higher velocity, the beam gun is usually added to a Mobile Suit as a last thought weapon.

Beam Rifles: Beam rifles are more accurate than beam guns and inflict enough damage to pose a problem to the Gundams. Having a fast exit velocity, it can be difficult to avoid enemy fire when they are equipped with beam rifles.

Beam Cannons: A much larger version of the beam rifle, the beam cannon can envelop an entire Mobile Suit in its blast. These weapons use a lot of energy and create a lot of heat, thus a built in generator is used to power this weapon.

Mega Beam Cannons: This weapon is usually mounted on space vessels. Taking a lot of time to charge and causing enough damage to destroy entire cities from orbit, the mega beam cannon is a very destructive weapon.

Beam Saber: Using an I-Field to shape a bladed type weapon, and then filled with super-heated plasma, beam sabers are efficient close range weapons. It is possible to shape the I-Field into a variety of shapes, including scythes and tridents. Depending on how much output a beam weapon creates and the power of the Mobile Suit using it determines the beam weapons' ability to cut through armor.

Missile Weapons

Bazooka: Bazookas fire a large, explosive warhead ranging in size from 260mm to 380mm in diameter. The detonation and blast radius caused from this warhead can destroy several grouped Mobile Suits and the shock from the blast and the resulting shrapnel could possibly destroy a Gundam with a single direct hit. While normal infantry bazookas are one-shot weapons, Mobile Suit bazookas are more like rocket launchers, with multiple rounds or warheads contained within a removable magazine. Some bazooka rounds could possibly come in heat-seeking types or incendiary variations.

Rocket Launcher: Firing large, explosive warheads much like bazookas, rocket launchers will generally fire more than one round at a time. The rockets themselves are usually non-guided warheads.

Torpedo: A maritime version of a gas-propelled warhead, torpedos. Torpedoes can also be launched in an arc onto the land to assist in a fire-support role to allied Mobile Suits.

Miscellaneous Weapon Types

Heat Blades: Made of a high melting-point metal, and heated to a red glow, heat blades are every bit as deadly as beam blades. Slicing through Mobile Suit armor as though it was butter, heat weapons require the Mobile Suit using them to have a much higher power ability than a Mobile Suit using a beam bladed weapon. The main reason for this being that it takes more force to cut through armor using a metal blade than it does when using a thermal energy one.