RB-79 Ball

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The RB-79 Ball is a fictional weapon from the anime series Mobile Suit Gundam.

During the outbreak of the One Year War between the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon, the Federation lacked any sort of a mass-produced humanoid mecha, known as mobile suits. The Zeonic forces laid waste to the Federation with their mobile suits, the MS-05B Zaku I and the MS-06F Zaku II.

To counteract this, the Federation scrambled to make some sort of mobile weapon that could counter the Zeon attack. However, their new prototype mobile suit, the RX-78-2 Gundam was too costly to mass produce and their first mass-production mobile suit, the RGM-79 GM, just wasn't being fielded fast enough.

Thus, the RB-79 Ball mobile pod was born. The Federation refitted hundreds of the civilian-model worker pods, known as SP-W03 Mobile Pods. The Federation put heavier armor and a 180 mm recoilless cannon on top. The Ball mobile pod also had thrusters mounted all along the body.

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Manufacturer: Earth Federation
Unit type: Mid-Range support Mobile Pod
Head height: 12.8 meters
empty weight: 17.2 tons
Max weight: 25 tons
Construction: Titanium composite Tri-Frame Semi-Monocoque
Generator Output: 400 kW(Fuel Cell)
Thrust: 24000 kg
180 degrees turn: 2.2 seconds
Thrust to mass ratio: 0.96G
Fixed armament:
120/180 mm recoilless cannon with 21 rounds stored in double lined clip

The RB-79 Ball prototype, numbered RX-76 is one of the Project V series, designed and manufactured at the same time as RX-75 Guntank, RX-77 Guncannon and RX-78 Gundam. The RX-76 prototype Ball uses a SP-W03 body, fitting on sufficient armour, a single barrel of the 120 mm recoilless cannon (same type as the RX-75 Guntank fix armament) and multiple thrusters. However, this version of the Ball was deemed too expensive to produce and thus different armaments were tested onto the unit and EFSF gradually lost interest in the unit and turned to Mobile Suit units. Not until later in the One Year War when the GM production line was greatly delayed and the EFSF was in great need of Combat units was the Ball project resurrected and produced in great number.

One variation was built from that basic design. The RB-79K Early mass-production type Ball(先行量産型ボール) mounted a pair of 180 mm cannons and also had larger manipulator arms. In the hands of Federation pilot Shiro Amada, it recorded possibly its greatest achievement by reaching a stalemate with an experimental Zaku in satellite orbit.

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A standard EFSF combat team would consist of 3 RGM-79's and 2 RB-79's to clear out the 3 MS combination of Zeon group tactics.

The directional thrusters mounted on all Ball units were directed solid fuel explosives, the detonation giving an impulse through the thrusters to change the direction of the Ball. This configuration gave the Ball unit good reaction speed and reasonable maneuverability on each thrust but very limited use of the system compared to the liquid fueled directional thrusters on Mobile Suits.

The Ball units had an advantage on refuelling onboard the Columbus class support vessel due to the lack of beam weapons and low number of liquid fuel thrusters, making the cooling time extremely short compared to any Mobile Suit with Thermo-nuclear power.

However, the Ball was ill-suited for combat. It had limited ammo, comparably thin armor, lacked the AMBAC system, and any sort of melee or defensive weapon. The Ball was smaller than the average mobile suit though, giving it a slight advantage. Its smaller size also made it lighter and had a higher acceleration than most OYW mobile suits. The Ball had its real advantage from numbers and cost. The Ball cost next to nothing and was heavily mass produced, becoming a ship support unit and the RGM-79 GM's support unit during the One Year War.

The most famous battle involving Balls was Operation Star-One. Zeon was moving away from Earth after the Federation took the upper hand following Odessa. In order to further suppress the Zeon and make them retreat quickly, the EFSF launched this operation. Since the GM was not yet ready, over 1000 Balls were used, along with Salamis class and Magellan class ships. This was one of the most brutal battles for the Federation. Their numbers overwhelmed the Zeon fleets and drove them away. Countless RB-79s were destroyed during this operation. Soon after, the Ball earned the nickname "Mobile Coffin" among EFSF pilots.

Actually, the Ball unit still had a specification superior to most Zeon mobile units. All the supposedly very powerful Mobile Armours except the Newtype units had less mass-thrust ratio(i.e. acceleration) against the Ball unit. All the earlier model Mobile Suits, specifically the MS-05's, MS-06's and MS-09R's had worse acceleration and less sensor range. This gave the Ball unit a very good advantage in hit-and-run tactics even when not teamed up with GMs.

Since the RB-79 Ball was manufactured in a very short period of time, a lot of variations were produced. One of the most common ones were the ones that appeared in the original Gundam series, with only one manipulator hand on each side unlike the RB-79K double handed on both side which should be the official configuration. Some were still equipped with 120 mm cannons. The Ball as shown in First Gundam is also very different from the later redesign in the number of directional thrusters.

The RB-79 Ball units left after the One Year War were refitted and integrated into a single design as the RB-79C Ball and were still in use in UC 0083. They were the basic units for combat zone working conditions and used for adjusting the focus of the mirrors for the Solar System II while defending it.

In the hands of a good pilot, the Ball unit can display amazing powers just like any other weapon. In the manga Crossbone Gundam there is an old Ball pilot boasting to have destroyed 6 MS-09R Rick Dom units in one battle. The sequel Skull Heart, however, shows that at least three of these kills were in large part aided by the fact that the Dom pilots mistakenly believed the Ball to be a gigantic RX-78 Gundam, due to a Gundam-style faceplate mounted on the Ball, and one of the kills came from the pilot, Umon Samon, ejecting the faceplate directly into a Rick Dom's cockpit.

Since the Ball unit was so small and inexpensive, it was also used in some rather odd situations. The Newtypes used a GM prototype Juggler which consisted of a GM body and 2 RB-79 as its Psycommu weapon units mounted on its shoulders. It was built as the EFSF's Newtype weapon test bed for remote control long range weaponry using Newtype abilities.

The Ball unit even entered into environment other than space. RB-79N Fisheye was designed for underwater use. The generator output was increased to 425 kW(as compare to the 400 kW of the other Ball configurations) and a multiple barrel long spear launcher was mounted to replace the 180 mm cannon. The manipulators are also enlarged for melee combat. This type had a single propellor instead of two thrusters on the back of the unit.

As late as UC 0133, in the story of Crossbone Gundam, the Earth Federation still had Ball units mixed in Mobile Suit formations. These units have a triple barrel configuration and are seen in the background.

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