Salamis-class

The Salamis-class was a line of light cruisers produced by the Earth Federation. It was the mainstay of the Federation’s forces and remained in service for decades.

History

The Earth Federation initiated the 70’s Armament Reinforcement Plan to bolster its military after the Principality of Zeon escalated their arms production in Side 3. The Magellan-class and the Salamis-class were developed as a result. Both lines of space battleships became the mainstay of the Federation’s space forces.

Salamis-class light cruiser

Salamis-class light cruiser

Although it was inferior to Zeon’s Musai-class, the Salamis-class line was considered a successful design. They were subsequently refitted with newer technology, and later on they were developed into the improved Salamis Kai-class.

Several Salamis-class cruisers were seen in service even up to UC 0153, making them one of the longest serving units at eighty over years..

Design

The Salamis-class light cruiser was built to form the backbone of the Earth Federation fleets. The cruisers were adequately armed to make them a formidable space vessel. However, the design was outdated by the time the One Year War broke out.

The cruiser was powered by a Minovsky-Ionesco fusion reactor. It had a small capsule on the ventral hull for atmospheric re-entry.

Bridge of a Salamis-class light cruiser

Salamis-class light cruiser

Re-entry capsule of a Salamis-class light cruiser

Re-entry capsule of a Salamis-class light cruiser

Armaments

The cruisers had six mega particle cannons, missile launchers and six machine gun turrets.

Mega particle cannons

The primary weapons of the Salamis-class cruiser was six mega particle cannons. Although these cannons had less fire power than the twin cannons of the Magellan-class, they were delivered effective ship-to-ship bombardment. However, they were ineffective against Zeon’s highly manoeuvrable mobile suits. The placement of the cannons allowed the cruisers to fire in all directions. This meant that it was unable to focus all of its cannons on a single target.

Machine guns

Six twin machine gun turrets provided anti-aircraft fire to defend the cruiser against space fighters and mobile suits. Four of the turrets protected the bridge and had 180 degrees firing angles to cover the fore and aft. Two fore-facing turrets were mounted near the bow of the ship. These had a limited rotation angle of 90 degrees upwards.

Missile launchers

The Salamis-class cruiser was equipped with several missile launchers. Two six-tube missile launchers were built into the front of the ship, one on each side. The light cruiser also had eight internal missile launchers. The missiles were usually used for ship-to-ship and ship-to-surface bombardment. These launchers carried nuclear warheads during the start of the One Year War.

Notable ships

Behind the scenes

Kunio Okawara was the original mechanical designer in Mobile Suit Gundam and Hajime Katoki designed the version in the Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO series.