Model number: RX-78GP03S
Code name: Gundam "Dendrobium Stamen"
Unit type: prototype space attack use mobile suit
Manufacturer: Anaheim Electronics
Operator: Earth Federation Forces
Rollout: 4 October UC 0083
First deployment: 11 November UC 0083
Accommodation: pilot only, in panoramic monitor/linear seat cockpit in torso (option to replace panoramic monitor/linear seat cockpit with standard-type cockpit in Core Fighter II-Sp)
Dimensions: overall height 18.2 meters; head height 18.0 meters
Weight: empty 41.6 metric tons; max gross 70.0 metric tons
Armor materials: gundarium alloy
Powerplant: Minovsky type ultracompact fusion reactor, output rated at 2000 kW
Propulsion: rocket thrusters: 2 x 40000 kg, 2 x 42000 kg, 2 x 12000 kg
Performance: maximum thruster acceleration 2.69 G; 180-degree turn time 0.8 seconds
Equipment and design features: 2 x extending manipulator arm, mounted in forearms, used to retrieve hand weapons from RX-78GP03 Gundam "Dendrobium Orchis" weapons container pods; docking binder backpack for docking with RX-78GP03 Gundam "Dendrobium Orchis"; optional Core Block System using Core Fighter II-Sp, replaces standard backpack and panoramic monitor/linear seat cockpit block inside torso
Fixed armaments: 2 x beam saber, stored in recharge racks in backpack docking binders, hand-carried in use
Optional fixed armaments: folding shield, mounted on either forearm
Optional hand armaments: XBR-BOWA M-82A beam rifle, power rated at 1.5 MW, powered by replaceable e-pac, with mounted "jitte" beam saber blocking unit, 4 spare e-pacs stored in folding shield; folding bazooka, clip-fed, 6 rounds in clip plus 1 round in chamber; hyper bazooka

Technical and Historical Notes

During its military reconstruction following the devastating One Year War of the Universal Century Era, the Earth Federation contracted a private company, Anaheim Electronics, to develop a series of new Gundam-model mobile suits to serve as conceptual testbeds for new and improved mobile suit technology. The third of these new prototypes to be produced by Anaheim was the RX-78GP03 Gundam, code-named "Dendrobium." The Dendrobium was composed of two units: the RX-78GP03S Gundam mobile suit itself, code-named "Stamen"; and the large RX-78GP03 Gundam mobile weapon unit, code-named "Orchis." The Stamen was, for the most part, a standard type of mobile suit, although it did incoporate some differences from other "normal" Gundam prototypes. Instead of the costly Core Block System, the cockpit was of the panoramic monitor/linear seat type, a concept originally tested in the RX-78NT-1 Gundam "Alex" during the latter days of the One Year War. This cockpit configuration provided the pilot with an almost unlimited field of vision and would serve as the basis for the standard mobile suit cockpit to be used in all designs thereafter. The usual head vulcan guns were absent, replaced by an advanced sensor and avionics package. The backpack was composed of a "docking binder" system to link up with and control the Orchis mobile weapon component. The arms also each incorporated a large, folding manipulator arm, which was used to retrieve the Stamen's own weapons (such as beam rifles, folding bazookas, etc.) from their storage racks in the Orchis' weapons container pods.

The GP03S Stamen was completed at Anaheim's Von Braun City lunar factory and delivered to their La Vie En Rose research dockship, where the Orchis component had also been completed. The only thing left to make the GP03 field-ready was piloting and combat data. However, with the shutdown of the Gundam Development Project, Earth Federation Forces security officer Nakahha Nakato dismissed all of the Anaheim research staff except for systems engineer Lucette Audevie. With the threat of the Delaz Fleet and the impending colony drop crisis, Lucette strongly argued for the GP03's completion, all to no avail. To face this desparate situation, Gundam pilot Kou Uraki and the crew of the assault carrier Albion literally hijacked the GP03 - with the assistance of Lucette and at the cost of her life - and quickly fielded the Dendrobium, proving to be a devastating foe to the Delaz fleet escorting their hijacked colony falling towards Earth.

On a side note, the Stamen was also developed with the intention of its cockpit block and backpack being replaced with a Core Block System. This Core Block composed of a special Core Fighter II-Sp, with the cockpit/nose section borrowed from the RX-78GP01 Gundam "Zephyranthes"'s own FF-XII Core Fighter II. Although the standard backpack and cockpit block were constructed and installed in the Stamen, the Core Fighter II-Sp was never built (as far as we know).

Miscellaneous Information

Pilot(s): Kou Uraki, Defrah Kar
Appearances: Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory; Mobile Suit Gundam: Encounters in Space; Gundam Evolve; Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam Vs. Gundam; Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam Vs. Gundam Next
Original mechanical designer: Hajime Katoki

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