Garuda class (Audhumla)

Class: Garuda
Name: Audhumla
Ships of the line: Audhumla, Garuda, Melord, Sudori
Unit type: large transport plane
Manufacturer: Earth Federation Forces
Operator(s): Earth Federation Forces; AEUG (Anti-Earth Union Group); Karaba
First deployment: unknown
Dimensions: overall length 317.0 meters; wingspan 524.0 meters
Weight: max gross 9,800.0 metric tons
Propulsion: 10 x jet engine
Equipment and design features: sensors, range unknown
Fixed armaments: 10 x 2-barrel laser gun turret, mounted across main body
Mobile suits: 20

The Garuda class was a stratospheric mobile suit transport plane constructed by the Earth Federation Forces as part of its Garuda Initiative. Six Garudas were assigned to Earth’s air defense zones to act as an emergency preparedness initiative for mobile suit deployment. The massive plane’s design bore a similarity to the Principality of Zeon’s Gaw planes from the One Year War of UC 0079. The Garuda class could carry up to 20 mobile suits, as well as multiple sub-flight systems. The Garuda class was lightly armed with 10 laser gun turrets and thus relied on the mobile suits it carried for its primary defense. In May UC 0087, the AEUG and Karaba launched a large-scale attack on the Titans’ Jaburo base in South America. However, the Titans planted a nuclear bomb under the base to dispose of their enemies. In a desperate escape plan, the AEUG seized the Audhumla and Sudori and traveled to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the Audhumla was transferred to Karaba control under Hayato Kobayashi. Karaba continued to use the Audhumla into the First Neo Zeon War in UC 0088, when the plane was dispatched to evacuate the citizens of Dublin ahead of a colony drop.

Captain: Hayato Kobayashi
First appearance: Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam
Original mechanical designer: Kazumi Fujita

Bridge

Laser gun turret

Rear view