Magellan-Class Battleship

In the fictional Mobile Suit Gundam universe, the Magellan-Class Battleship was a battleship type that was commissioned in UC 0070 as part of the Federation's "'70s Armament Reinforcement Plan." Developed along side with the Salamis-Class Cruiser, the Magellan-Class had only one refitted design in U.C. 0083 that stemmed from the original shipline.

The Magellan-Class Battleship is named after the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan.

The Original Magellan-Class

Developed in conjuction with the Salamis-Class Cruiser as part of the Earth Federation's "'70s Armament Reinforcement Plan", the Magellan-Class Battleship was the most powerful warship the Federation had at the time. The first Magellans had no mega particle cannons but were later refitted before the One Year War with the Principality of Zeon. All Magellan-Classes featured seven twin turret mega particle cannons in all, along with 14 anti-aircraft machineguns, which later be used to help defend the ships against mobile suit attacks.

Magellan-Class Battleships mostly served at flagships for the Earth Federal Space Force. During the Battle of Loum, Fleet Admiral Revil, more commonly known as General Revil, personally commanded his own Magellan-Class Battleship, the Ananke, which was destroyed in the battle. Revil later returned to command the Phoebe, another Magellan-Class, which was also destroyed with him aboard when Zeon Supreme Commander Gihren Zabi fired his Solar Ray. Admiral Watkins and Admiral Tianem also personally commanded Magellan warships.

While very powerful, the Magellans were hopelessly outmatched against the more powerful Zeon warships, such as the Musai-Class Light Cruiser. Many of the battleships were destroyed during the One Year War. They could, however, take more damage than any Salamis-Class Cruiser because they were better armored. Despite its overall better performance in armament, speed, and armor; the newer and better performing warships, such as the Pegasus-Class Assault Carrier, began replacing the old Magellans, becoming the prime striking arm of the Earth Federal Forces. These powerful ships could not be produce quickly though, which meant the EFSF had to make due with their Salamis-Class Cruisers and Magellan-Class Battleships as makeshift mobile suit carriers during the last few battles of the war, including the Battle of Solomon and the Battle of A Baoa Qu.

At the end of the One Year War, things were pretty clear to the Federation: The Magellan warships were outdated for the current form of combat. The battleships were decimated during the One Year War, leaving just a handful of the Magellans left for active service.

Magellan UC 0083 Refit

Despite the superiority of mobile suit based combat, the Federation's engineers were not about to give up on these battleships just yet. Between the end of the One Year War and the Federation's naval review in November of U.C.0083, the Magellan-Class Battleships underwent an overhaul and refit. The missile launchers were removed in favor of two additional anti-MS beam gun turrets. More importantly, all of the old style machine guns were replaced with a new kind of small calibur beam turret which fired slower but stood a better chance of killing an opponent should the beam strike. This refit, known as the Magellan-Class Battleship 0083 Refit, was intruduced along with the Salamis-Class 0083 Refit vessles during the U.C. 0083 naval review at Konpei Island, the former Principality of Zeon space base known as the Solomon.

Magellan-Class Fate

During the Konpei Island naval review, the stolen RX-78GP02 Gundam Physalis fired a nuclear warhead that destroyed much of the Federation's space fleet. Many of the brand new Magellan-Class refits were destroyed or damaged beyond repair. The Earth Federation called it quits for the Magellan-Class Battleship, decommissioning most of the ships before the Gryps War in U.C. 0088 (of the Zeta Gundam series).

Some unofficial Gundam side stories, such as Gundam Sentinel, say that a few of the original vintage Magellan-Class Battleships that were not refitted into the 0083 refit, were refitted in a less expensive verison known as the Magellan Kai-Class Battleship. It is unknown if this model of the Magellan is a factual verison because it has never been seen in animation or been seen outside of the Gundam Sentinel series.

The Magellans were phased out from UC 0083 to UC 0088, replaced by the Irish-Class Battleship, which were more powerful and could also holds mobile suits.

See also

• One Year War
• Universal Century
• Minovsky Physics

External links

• The World-Wide Gundam Informational Network
• The Gundam Naval Museum
• MAHQ
• Library of Londonion (UC ship names)