Lesseps class land battleship
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| Archangel-class assault ship | |
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| Lesseps (ZAFT configuration) | |
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| Lesseps (Junk Guild configuration) | |
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| Fast Facts | |
| Ship Type | Land battleship |
| Class: | Lesseps |
| Manufacturer: | ZAFT |
| Operator: | ZAFT, Junk Guild |
| Ships of Class: | Lesseps, Desmond |
| General Characteristics | |
| Length: | 250 meters |
| Propulsion: | Scale system |
| Armor: | Unknown |
| Armament: |
(ZAFT) 40cm dual cannon x3 (Junk Guild) large manipulator arm x3 |
| Mobile Suit Complement: |
(Lesseps - ZAFT service) GAT-X102 Duel x1 (Lesseps - Junk Guild service) Kimera x1 (Desmond) TMF/A-802 BuCUE x4 |
This article is about a fictional ship class from the Cosmic Era timeline of the anime Gundam metaseries.
The Lesseps-class land battleships are ZAFT vessels designed to domimate the land, just as the Vosgulov-class submarines dominate the sea. However, it is more accurately called an amphibious battleship, as its snake-like "scale system" allows it to traverse the open sea as well as travelling over ground. It is heavily armed with 3 dual 40cm cannons and 32 vertical missile launchers, but like all ZAFT vessels, its most important armament is its mobile suit compliment. Unusually, the Lesseps lacks any linear catapults for launching its mobile suits, but as it was designed specifically to use the quadrupedal ground-combat TMF/A-802 BuCUE, this was deemed unnecessary. In addition, it sometimes uses a pair of slow but heavily armed TFA-2 ZuOOTs on its upper deck as a pair of extra turrets.
The lead ship of the Lesseps-class was assigned to ace pilot Andrew Waltfeld, the renowned "Desert Tiger", and served as the flagship of his North African occupation force, headquartered in the city of Banadiya. As Waltfeld frequently piloted a TMF/A-802 BuCUE and later a TMF/A-803 LaGOWE in battle, operational control of the Lesseps often fell to his subordinate Martin DaCosta. The Lesseps was abandoned after suffering severe damage at the hands of the Earth Alliance ship Archangel. It was then salvaged by the Junk Guild, which replaced its main turrets with 3 large manipulator arms for handling cargo. The Lesseps was apparently left behind in Orb when its Junk Guild crew returned to space later in CE 71, and its subsequent fate is unknown.
In CE 73, another Lesseps-class vessel, the Desmond, assisted the battleship Minerva in the Battle of the Gulnahan Ravine.
[edit] Trivia
The Lesseps is named after 19th-century diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps, responsible for the excavation of the Suez Canal and first failed attempts at a Panama Canal. The Desmond may be named after the 20th century religious figure and philosopher Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
| Cosmic Era ship classes | |
|---|---|
| OMNI Enforcer | Agamemnon | Archangel | Arkansas | Des Moines | Drake | Fraser | Girty Lue | Hannibal | Nelson | Tarawa |
| ZAFT | Compton | Eternal | Gondwana | Lesseps | Laurasia | Minerva | Nazca | Petrie | Vosgulov |
| ORB Union | Aegis | Izumo | Kuraokami | Takemikazuchi |
| Miscellaneous | Acidalium | Cornelius | Marseille III | Silverwind | Tsiolkovsky |
