Birmingham class battleship - Definition

Birmingham class battleship
Fast Facts
Ship Type	Battleship
Class:	Birmingham
Launched:	before Universal Century 0083
Class Fate:	Sunk in nuclear attack
General Characteristics
Displacement:	88,500 tons
Length:	398 meters
Beam:	171 meters
Draft:	129 meters
Armament:	5x 2-barrel main gun 2x 1-barrel main gun 12x AA laser turret 4x missile launcher
Mobile Suit Complement:	N/A, not equipped with MS hangars
Ships of the Line	Birmingham

In the fictional Gundam universe, at the end of the One Year War, the Earth Federation began a rebuilding program aimed at putting people to work to get the Federation's armed services back into shape. One of the new vessels to emerge during this time of rebuilding was the Federation's Birmingham class battleship.

The Birmingham was designed to be the flagship of the Earth Federal Space Force, so it was sailed around a lot to display the power of the Federation in the postwar years. The Bimingham had five two-barrel main beam turrets, missile launchers, and several anti-aircraft weapons; however, Federation engineers did not include Mobile Suit hangars.

In U.C.0083 the Birmingham was sailed to the Federation's naval review under the command of Admiral Green Wyatt, the highest ranking officer of the Space Force in attendance. He and several other high ranking Federation officials arranged the review in order to visually inspect the navy and show off the power of the Earth Federal Space Force. In the middle of the review the Delaz Fleet mounted a surprise nuclear attack against the Federation's fleet using the nuclear-equipped RX-78GP02A Gundam Physalis, which had been stolen earlier by Anavel Gato. The blast was centered on the Birmingham, and destroyed this ship and 2/3rds of the particiapting space vessles in the Federation fleet. Following the conclusion of Operation Stardust the Federation ceased building battleships that could not carry Mobile Suits and created the counter-insurgency group known as the Titans.

Interestingly enough, Bask Om's command ship, the Dogos Gear (from Zeta Gundam), had a passing resemblence to the Birmingham, and unfortunatly shared the Birmingham's fate when a competing Titans officer sunk the ship.

See also

• Mobile Suit Gundam 0083
• Universal Century

External links

• The World-Wide Gundam Informational Network (http://www.geocities.com/gundam_uc0079/index.html)
• Gundam Naval Museum (http://www.geocities.com/gundamships/Mainpage.html)
• MAHQ (http://www.mahq.net)

• Library of Londonion (ship names & fates) (http://side7.gundam.com/rgz/info/uc_ship.html)