Chibe class

Class: Chibe
Unit type: heavy cruiser
Manufacturer: Principality of Zeon
Operator(s): Principality of Zeon; Earth Federation Forces
Rollout: June UC 0070
First deployment: UC 0070
Dimensions: overall length 235 meters; overall width 113.2 meters; overall height 99.4 meters
Weight: max gross 16,000 metric tons
Propulsion: 5 x rocket engine
Equipment and design features: sensors, range unknown
Fixed armaments: 2 x 3-barrel mega particle cannon; 18 x 2-barrel machine gun; 12 x missile launcher
Mobile suits: 8

Built before the start of the Principality of Zeon’s mobile suit project, the Chibe class was one of the first warships commissioned by the Principality of Zeon, and saw use into the One Year War. The Chibe class was one of the first to use the mega particle cannon, and it mounted six of these powerful weapons in two turrets. Although the Chibe was designed before the Zeon mobile suit project, most Chibe hulls were spacious enough to be easily converted to mobile suit carriers, with the ability to carry eight mobile suits in the main hull. The aging Chibe class was updated and retrofitted during and after the One Year War, with some ships remaining in service until at least UC 0087.

First appearance: Mobile Suit Gundam
Original mechanical designer(s): Yoshiyuki Tomino (principal design, Mobile Suit Gundam version), Kunio Okawara (cleanup, Mobile Suit Gundam version), Hajime Katoki (MS IGLOO version)

Rear view (Version 1)