Zanzibar-Class Mobile Cruiser

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Zanzibar-Class Cruiser

Fast Facts
Ship Type	Cruiser
Class	Zanzibar
Launched:	July Universal Century 0076
Class Fate:	Unknown, presumed decommissioned post U.C. 0079
General Characteristics
Displacement:	Unknown
Length:	255 meters
Width:	221.8 meters
Height:	70.5 meters
Armament:	Original: 2-barrel main gun turrets x2, mega particle cannon turrets x4, 2-barrel machine gun turrets x5 II-Class: 2-barrel main gun turrets x2, 2-barrel mega particle cannon turrets x4, 120mm machine gun turrets x8
Mobile Suit Complement:	Both: 6
Ships of the Class:	Original: Zanzibar, Kerguelen, Madagascar, Chimera, II-Class: Lili Marleen

In the fictional Gundam universe, the Zanzibar-Class Mobile Carrier is a carrier utilized by the Principality of Zeon. These ships are functionally equivalent to the Federation's Pegasus class mobile suit carriers, and fill a similar role in the battlefield.

The Zanzibar class is designed for mobile suit transportation, and as such the ship relies on its mobile suits for most of its offensive and defensive power. This is also the only Zeon ship that can undergo atmopheric re-entry and return to space. Unlike the Federation's Pegasus class ships, the Zanzibar class doesn't have an integrated Minovsky Craft system, so it must depend on sustained thrust to operate. These ships have appeared several times, usually in support of major operations. Some were even used as flagships by high ranking Zeon members (like Rear Admiral Kycilia Zabi) when a battleship was unavaible or ill-suited for the role. Perhaps the most creative use of a Zanzibar class ship was in MS Gundam: the 08th MS Team, when Ginias Sahalin used one as a powerplant for his Southeast Asia base. Some of the Zanzibars were modified to replace the hangar space of four of their mobile suits with launch and support facilities for a mobile armor. While the Zanzibar class was more balanced in terms of weapons than the Musai class, since it was equipped with machinegun turrets for point defense, Zeon space commanders were not as eager to use the class. The Zeon space navy had been built around both mobile suit transportation and ship-to-ship combat. Although the Zanzibar carried double the MS complement of a Musai, the Musai heavily outgunned the Zanzibar. Furthermore, after Zeon's retreat from Odessa, and the subsequent failure of the Jaburo operation, the war moved into space, and the Zanzibar class ships took a back seat to the Musai, since its greatest advantage, transatmospheric capability, was now meaningless.

One detail that is easily overlooked are the Zanzibar's two anti-ship Giant Missile Tubes. In the Zanzibar II refit they are placed above the two upper 2-barrel mega particle cannon turrets.

In the strategy game series Gihren's Greed, the Zanzibar is one of the most expensive vessels the Zeon forces can build, but on the other hand it is arguably the most useful as well. As it can enter the Earth's atmosphere independently, it can be used to spearhead land-drop operations and function as a supplier for the mobile suit forces (as opposed to relying solely on HLVs which, in addition to being defenseless, do not resupply units.

[edit] Zanzibar II class

At least one Zanzibar class ship, the Lili Marleen, was refit for used as a flagship for the Cima Fleet during Aiguille Delaz's Operation: Stardust. The Lili Marleen gained an addition four two-barrel beam turrets which made the ship as powerful as a Federation's Magellan battleship. It was capable of carrying eight mobile suits, and as the original, it could replace four mobile suits with a mobile armor in its hangar. It was also capable of better atmospheric flight due to a more aerodynamic design and the increase of its engines power.

The Lili Marleen was destroyed during the final phase of Operation: Stardust by the Federation's experimental Mobile Armor, the RX-78GP03 Gundam Dendrobium Orchis]](Episode 13: A Storm raging Through).

Zanzibar class ships are seen in Mobile Suit Gundam, MS Gundam- The 8th MS Team, and Gundam 0083