RMS-117 Galbaldy β – MechaBay | Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam

The RMS-117 Galbaldy β was a limited custom mobile suit developed by the Earth Federation Forces as an upgrade of the MS-17 Galbaldy α. Following the defeat of the Principality of Zeon in the One Year War, many mobile suit design plans were seized by the Earth Federation Forces, with some of them refined and put into production for themselves.

The “R” in the model code meant it was a Federation model¹ and the “MS” designated it as a mobile suit. The “117” in the model code denoted that it was the 117th mobile suit design project. The “β” (beta) designation indicated it was the second iteration of the Galbaldy series.

History

Following the defeat of the Principality of Zeon in the One Year War, many mobile suit design plans were seized by the Earth Federation Forces, with some of them refined and put into production for themselves. One of these designs was the MS-17 Galbaldy α, which the EFF revised and produced as the RMS-117 Galbaldy β.

The Galbaldy β was built for efficiency, with trimmed down armor as well as improved mobility. Although intended to operate as a localised combat unit, the Galbaldy β was actually equal to the all-purpose RMS-106 Hi-Zack in terms of performance. However, the fact that the Galbaldy β was fitted with weaker, older style titanium alloy armor made it far less durable in combat compared to newer mobile suits fielded by both the Earth Federation and the Anti-Earth Union Group that had armor made of Gundarium γ alloy.

Most of the Galbaldy βs built were stationed at Luna II or on EFF ships operating out of Luna II. Prior to the start of the Gryps War, the Titans created a booster-equipped variant, the Galbaldy β High Mobility Type.

The overall performance of the Galbaldy β was slightly better than that of the old MS-14A Gelgoog, the mobile suit that the Principality of Zeon chose over the Galbaldy α. It was also comparable to the RMS-106 Hi-Zack and RMS-179 GM II that were also in use by the Earth Federation Forces in the early days of the Gryps War, though its performance was arguably superior to the Hi-Zack that was typically outfitted with old machine guns as opposed to beam rifles due to its lower generator output.

Design

The RMS-117 Galbaldy β was an Earth Federation Forces upgrade of the MS-17 Galbaldy α. The upgrades were fairly simple, the most noticeable of which was the modification done to the armor of the mobile suit’s head, shoulders, legs and waist. The more significant upgrades included an increase in the mobile suit’s performance specifications, such as thruster acceleration and power output.

The head unit resembled the MS-14A Gelgoog, with a unique protrusion at the top of the head. A signal flare firing apparatus was included in the head, and its shoulder armor was also redesigned. The mobile suit was powered by a Minovsky type ultracompact fusion reactor with an output of 1,507 kW.

The Galbaldy β had a standard cockpit in its torso with a panoramic monitor and linear seat. While a fairly good mobile suit, one of the Galbaldy β’s weaknesses was that it had thin armor composed of a titanium alloy, again similar to the Hi-Zack and GM II, but inadequate compared to newer mobile suits that had armor made of Gundarium γ alloy.

The mobile suit could be equipped with a ballute system for atmospheric entry. As the mobile suit entered the atmosphere, a bowl-shaped ballute (balloon parachute) deployed to protect it from the friction heat of atmospheric entry.

Armaments

The Galbaldy β’s standard weapons were a beam rifle for ranged attacks, two beam sabers for melee combat, and signal flare launchers for communication.

Beam rifle

The beam rifle used by the Galbaldy β closely resembled that of the MS-14A Gelgoog. Other than a differently-shaped stock, this rifle’s sight had also been changed to a high-performance type. It was powered by the E-pack system which was located in the grip.

The rifle drew its rounds from energy capacitors (E-caps), clips of charged Minovsky particles. Minovsky particles broke down matter at a molecular level, allowing the beam rifle bolts to penetrate even the thickest armor. This meant that a single shot could destroy a mobile suit.

Beam sabers

The beam saber was a small device held in the mobile suit’s hands when deployed and was powered by a rechargeable energy capacitor. It emitted high-energy Minovsky particles to form a blade-shaped I-field (via manipulation of electromagnetic fields), and then filled this I-field shell with superheated Minovsky particle plasma to produce an effective cutting blade. A beam saber was stored in each of the Galbaldy β’s shoulder armor.

Signal flare launcher

The Galbaldy β mounted a signal flare launcher in its head. The flare launcher could launch flares of several different colours, allowing the Galbaldy β to send easily identifiable messages even when there was a high Minovsky particle density. Each launcher carried 5 rounds.

Shield

The shield was a basic arm-mounted defence armament for many mobile suits. The shield was a thick sheet of armor designed to take severe punishment that would normally destroy a mobile suit. Shields were also treated with an anti-beam coating to withstand several beam shots before the coating wore off. Typically, physical shields could only take so much damage before they succumbed to the pressure and broke.

The Galbaldy β’s shield, unlike the original Galbaldy α’s shield, possessed minor offensive capabilities as it was built with a pair of missile launchers on the underside. Each missile launcher was loaded with a single small missile that could typically do significant damage to a mobile suit or another similarly armored target but was less effective against the heavy armor of a battleship.

Behind the scenes

The original mechanical designer was Okawara Kunio. The Galbaldy β was designed to replace some of the aging mobile suits in the Earth Federation Forces’ inventory, though its limited production numbers meant it never fully fulfilled this role.

Appearances

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam
Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Zeta Gundam

External links

RMS-117 Galbaldy β on the Gundam Wiki
RMS-117 Galbaldy β on MAHQ

Federation in Japanese is renpou, hence the use of “R”. ↩