OZ-06MS Leo
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The OZ-06MS Leo is a mobile suit from the Gundam anime television series New Mobile Report Gundam Wing. It is regarded as a "cannon-fodder" mobile suit, being numerous and very destructable. It shares this "distinction" with other cannon fodder MS, including the RGM-79 GM and MS-06 Zaku II.
In the year After Colony 175 the OZ-00MS Tallgeese became the first combat capable mobile suit of that era to ever be constructed. However, the Tallgeese proved to be far too powerful for its own good. It was a large and expensive machine, and test pilots had extreme difficulty handling it, so mass-production of the current Tallgeese design was out of the question. The Tallgeese's design would be drastically revamped until OZ finally had a workable mobile suit for mass-production, the OZ-06MS Leo. The Leo would be OZ's first mass-production mobile suit, and it would start the trend of naming new mobile suits after Zodiacal Constellations. Leo, which means "lion" and is the fifth Zodiac symbol, also may have had a double meaning as the symbol of the Romefeller Foundation was also that of a lion.
Put into mass-production in AC 175, the Leo would be upgraded occasionally as the years went by. The Leo would serve as the basic front line mobile suit for the United Earth Sphere Alliance military and the elite Specials force, and later OZ and the Romefeller Foundation. By AC 195, when total war breaks out between the colonies and the Earth, the Leos in service were barely different from those models released over twenty years prior. The reason the Leo was able to stay in service virtually unchanged for such a long time was that it was an easily adaptable unit, with several variations of the main design being released. Of course it didn't hurt that there were no organizations that had yet revealed they had the military might to challenge the Alliance's Leo. However, once the war came into full swing the Leo found itself woefully outdated, and were easy kills for the rebels' high-powered Gundam units.
The Leo was found in a variety of colors to distinguish the suit's alliance. The Leo's used by the Earth's sphere prior to the takeover by OZ were painted olive drab green and brown; this color is most constantly viewed as the default Leo color and was used by members of the Treize Faction as well. The space Leos used by the Earth's sphere were painted Violet, as were their booster packs. (Excluding the one used by Heero Yuy in Endless Waltz, which had a gray booster) The ground type Leo's usually used by OZ's soldiers were usually painted a dull blue color, as did the space variations.
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[edit] OZ-06MS Leo Early Type
The OZ-06MS Leo Early Type was an earlier model of the standard Leo design. Although it was older the Leo Early Type was nearly identical in looks and performance to the Leos built much later. The most noticeable differences of the Leo Early Type were merely aesthetic ones, such as larger ball-shaped shoulder armor that encapsulated the shoulder joint, as well as knee armor that was cosmetically identical to the Tallgeese's.
Despite its age, several older model Leos were still in service, especially in the further reaches of the Earth. A few Leo Early Types were still used by the forces of Colonel Bunt in the jungle regions of southern-Asia that were formerly known as China.
[edit] OZ-06MS Leo Cannon Type
The OZ-06MS Leo Cannon Type was a minor modification on the frame of the standard OZ-06MS Leo mobile suit. The most striking difference between the two units is the modified shoulder armor of the Leo Cannon Type. Aside from being much larger and more squared off than the standard Leo's shoulder armor, the Leo Cannon Type incorporated a pair of beam cannons onto the tops of the shoulders, similar to the Guncannon of the original Mobile Suit Gundam.
This rarely seen Leo variant was often used as a personal unit of higher-ranking Earth Alliance and OZ officers, and was often armed with a beam rifle over the standard Leo 105mm machineguns or doberguns, shell-firing cannons.
[edit] OZ-06SMS Leo Space Type
The OZ-06SMS Leo Space Type was a modified OZ-06MS Leo. The standard ground-type Leo operated poorly in outer space, so the Leo Space Type remedied that problem by the addition of a booster unit with additional maneuvering verniers and rocket thrusters to the backpack. The Leo Space Type would be used by the Earth Alliance space forces, known as the "Cosmo-arma", to blockade and police the space colonies.
The Leo Space Type also used a different variation of the beam rifle. The space-use beam rifle featured a radar sensor closer to the edge of the rifle barrel instead of the visual sensors built into the ground-use Leo beam rifles.
[edit] OZ-06MS EWAC Leo
The OZ-06MS EWAC Leo (unofficial name) was a rare variant of the standard Leo Space Type. As its name implies, it was intended for reconnaissance and information-gathering (EWAC stands for Early Warning and Caution). The most notable change to the basic Leo design was the head, which had been modified by the installation of a high-power dish radome. As it wasn't intended for extended combat, the EWAC Leo was lightly armed, carrying only a customized, clip-fed machinegun. There were also three objects mounted on the back of the EWAC Leo's left shoulder that appear to be beam sabers, grenades, or something else entirely; however, they were never used, so their function remains a mystery.
[edit] Specifications
[edit] OZ-06MS Leo
- Manufacturer: OZ (Organization of Zodiac)
- User: OZ; Earth Sphere Alliance; civilians
- Unit type: Mass production general purpose mobile suit
- First Deployment: AC 175
- Head Height: 16.2 m
- Weight: empty 7.0 t
- Powerplant: Ultracompact fusion reactor
- Equipment and design features: Flight option pack, can be fitted on any ground-based Leo, provides aerial control surfaces and additional thrusters for atmospheric flight
- Armament: 2 x beam saber, stored in recharge racks in optional shield, hand-carried in use; shield, mounted on left shoulder; 105mm rifle, drum-fed, 100 rounds per drum; beam rifle, 20 round charge; "shorty" beam rifle, 20 round charge; bazooka; dober gun, clip-fed
- Pilot: Zechs Merquise, Treize Khushrenada, Heero Yuy, Lucrezia Noin, Sally Po, Trowa Barton, Lady Une, Hilde Schbeiker, Nichol, Duo Maxwell, Odel Bernett, Odin Bernett
[edit] OZ-06MS Leo Space Type
- Manufacturer: OZ (Organization of Zodiac)
- User: OZ; Earth Sphere Alliance; civilians
- Unit type: Mass production general purpose mobile suit
- First Deployment: Late AC 175
- Head Height: 16.2 m
- Weight: empty 7.0 t
- Powerplant: Ultracompact fusion reactor
- Equipment and design features: Space flight booster pack, contains multiple thrusters and attitude control verniers
- Armament: 2 x beam saber, stored in recharge racks in optional shield, hand-carried in use; shield, mounted on left shoulder; beam rifle, 20 round charge; "shorty" beam rifle, 20 round charge; large bazooka; dober gun, clip-fed
- Pilot: Heero Yuy, Lucrezia Noin, Trowa Barton, Hilde Schbeiker, Nichol, Duo Maxwell, Odel Bernett, Odin Bernett
[edit] Trivia
The model number of the Leo is a reference to the iconic MS-06 Zaku II from Mobile Suit Gundam, a suit which served a similar role in its story to the one the Leo served in Gundam Wing.
