Minerva class battleship
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| Minerva-class battleship | |
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| Fast Facts | |
| Ship Type | battleship |
| Class: | Minerva |
| Launched: | October 2, Cosmic Era 73 |
| Ships of Class: | LHM-BB01 Minerva |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | Unknown |
| Length: | 350 meters |
| Beam: | Approx. 80 meters |
| Wingspan: | Approx. 270 meters |
| Draft: | Approx. 16 meters |
| Propulsion: | thermonuclear pulse thruster x 14 |
| Armor: | laminated armor, unknown thickness |
| Armament: | QZX-1 "Tannhäuser" positron blaster cannon x 1 XM47 "Tristan" dual beam cannon x 2 |
| Mobile Suit Complement: | (C.E. 73) (Spacebound)
ZGMF-X56S Impulse (C.E. 73) (Earthbound) (C.E. 74) |
| Linear Catapults: | 3 |
This article is about a fictional ship class from the Cosmic Era timeline of the anime Gundam metaseries.
The Minerva-class battleships are naval space vessels used by ZAFT forces. Visually, the Minerva resembles a combination of the Archangel and Eternal of Bloody Valentine War fame; however, it is actually designed to resemble the space whale, "Evidence 01", recovered by George Glenn. The first ship of the class, Minerva, carries the hull classification code LHM-BB01, designating it as both a transatmospheric mobile assault ship (like the Archangel) and a battleship, the first such craft commissioned by ZAFT during the postwar era. The Minerva is commanded by Talia Gladys; her executive officer is Arthur Trine. Talia, Athrun Zala, Heine Westenfluss (deceased), and later Shinn Asuka and Rey Za Burrel are all members of ZAFT's elite FAITH detachment.
The Minerva is heavily armored and armed with two twin-barrel XM47 "Tristan" beam cannons, one three-gun M10 "Isolde" 420 mm (16.54 in) projectile cannon turret, numerous missile launchers, and a single QZX-1 "Tannhäuser" positron beam cannon. She has a carrying capacity of at least 11 mobile suits, including the ZGMF-X56S Impulse Gundam.
Despite being heavily armored and her advanced ordnance, the Minerva has an exploitable weakness. Minerva has virtually no defensive or counter measures to protect her underside leaving her quite vulnerable to attacks from below.
[edit] Unit History
The Minerva, which was meant to carry the stolen Gundams Chaos, Abyss, and Gaia, was launched prematurely on October 2, Cosmic Era 73, in the aftermath of the Armory One incident; at that time, her mobile suit complement included the ZGMF-X56S Impulse Gundam, two ZGMF-1000 ZAKU Warriors (one painted in Lunamaria Hawke's personal red colors, while the other was the unregistered unit brought aboard by Athrun Zala), one ZGMF-1001 ZAKU Phantom (painted in Rey Za Burrel's personal white colors) and two ZGMF-601R GuAIZ Rs. Both GuAIZ Rs were destroyed in her first engagement and one of the ZAKU Warriors in her second. After its launch, the Minerva was involved in the unsuccessful attempt to break up the Junius Seven colony drop, during which it was attacked by the Blue Cosmos stealth battleship Girty Lue and the three stolen Gundams. When the Minerva reached Earth, one of the ZAKU Warriors was replaced by the ZGMF-X23S Saviour Gundam, and one of the GuAIZ Rs was later replaced by the prototype ZGMF-X2000 GOUF Ignited. After Heine Westenfluss' death at the Battle of Dardanelles and Athrun's alleged defection, Minerva's remaining pilots as of the invasion of Orb in Operation Fury were Shinn Asuka, Rey Za Burrel, and Lunamaria Hawke.
The Minerva was heavily damaged during the battle near Space Mobile Fortress Messiah by the Archangel and Athrun Zala's ZGMF-X19A Infinite Justice Gundam. Even though most of the crew survived, Talia Gladys would later die inside Messiah alongside PLANT Supreme Council Chairman (and lover) Gilbert Durandal and ace pilot Rey Za Burrel.
[edit] Related Development
- Archangel-class assault ship, the Earth Alliance assault ship that the Minerva was designed to emulate.
- Izumo class battleship, the basis of the Archangel's design.
- Girty Lue, Blue Cosmos stealth battleship and antagonist of the Minerva.
[edit] Trivia
- The Minerva is named for the Roman goddess of wisdom and warfare, who was known to the Greeks as Athena.
- The ship's main weapons ("Wolfram", "Tristan" and "Isolde") are all named after characters from Richard Wagner's operas.
- The "Tristan" dual beam cannon could also be named after a 12th-century courtly romance written by Gottfried von Strassburg. Coincidentally, the Alliance's equivalent weapon is called "Gottfried".
- The Ship's positron cannon, Tannhäuser, is named both after a knight and poet in German medieval legend and an opera by Richard Wagner
| 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 |
