GPO2A nuke launcher?

[abrahamsen0]

My question is there any time delay for it to fire the nuke when both launcher attachments are already connected? Does it have to charge then fire or when both pieces are connected all it has to do is pull the trigger.

[ZeBaron]

Well, judging by what I remember of the Konpeitoh strike, Gato connected the two halves, said a couple lines about how the Nightmare had returned, and then he just pulled the trigger and off it went. The Mk. 82 shell basically looks like an RPG, and maybe the bazooka mounted some internal rails to boost its speed; I honestly don't know. All I know is, there was no indication that the Physalis was charging anything prior to the nuke being launched.

[Duraham]

there's always a short delay due to tracking systems

[Dendrobium Stamen]

I'm not sure the Physalis' atomic bazooka would have any tracking systems, though; or if it did, I doubt Gato would have needed them. As I recall, he simply pointed it in the direction of the Birmingham and fired, though there may have been a proximity or timed fuse on the warhead.

[Kenji]

Now that I think of it, I'm having a hard time figuring out why the Physalis needed to be built the way it was to be a tactical nuclear suit. In the One Year War, didn't Zakus load nukes in their bazookas? Since I'm sure those weren't suicide attacks, that takes away the justification of all that extra armor and specialization.

Or, perhaps, is the Mk.82 supposed to be some kind of special high-yield nuke?

[VentZX]

Now that I think of it, I'm having a hard time figuring out why the Physalis needed to be built the way it was to be a tactical nuclear suit. In the One Year War, didn't Zakus load nukes in their bazookas? Since I'm sure those weren't suicide attacks, that takes away the justification of all that extra armor and specialization.

Or, perhaps, is the Mk.82 supposed to be some kind of special high-yield nuke?

Consider it the mecha designers looking back and realizing it was silly or didn't make sense. The original Gundam series was a pioneer in the real robot genre, but it still wasn't hard science by any means. When the designers were working on 0083, much more thought was put into the designs and technology going into them.

[Kenji]

Well, if you wanna talk hard sci-fi, I recall that nuclear weapons aren't anywhere near as powerful in space, as most of the damage a nuke makes is with the shockwave rippling through the atmosphere, and then being sucked back into the vacuum. Therefore, doesn't that even further negate the need for that kind of armor... as well as the damage inflicted on Solomon?

[CYNICISM AT IT'S BEST]

Also, those were indesciminate attacks from a ways off, the GP-02A is a tactical unit, meaning it was designed to move into something like a base at high speeds and unleash it's nuke at close range, hence the armor and seriously oversized cooling system/shield, and no the vacuum wouldn't negate the heat and gravitic waves still caused by the explosion, plus I would think that the reactors on all those ships might help things along just a bit as well.

[jam!]

I'd agree with CAIB. The Physalis was obviously intended to deliver its payload to a pinpoint target with extreme accuracy.

There's also the possibility that the Physalis was so designed to be able to withstand a nuclear blast in atmospheric conditions as well which makes the heavy armour, numerous thrusters and cooling shield even more important. This is obvious since the testing at the Torrington base was going to include the Physalis launching the nuclear warhead and obviously testing how well it could survive the residual fallout.

[Ascension]

A few points:

1.) A thread a looooong time back more or less proved that it would've taken something a looooot bigger than the Tsar Bomba to do atomic bazooka-level damage in a vacuum. The lack of a shockwave really does make a big difference in effectiveness. I imagine that the need for radiation shielding on any spacecraft would also reduce the effectiveness of the nuke by rendering any fallout effects useless.

2.) I would agree that it's reasonable to assume the the GP02A was designed to deliver its payload under terrestrial conditions.

3.) As I understand it the nuke Zakus really were on suicide missions. That's what I was told a while back, at least.

[Nagato21]

I also heard that the nuke Zaku pilots where reckless when using those bazooka and often fired the nuke accidentally or when too close; especially during the battle of Loum.

As for GP02 I believe that the Nuke it was using must've been a special type of warhead since he was able to wipe out a large number of ships (add the fuels and reactors).

[Dendrobium Stamen]

I'd imagine the nuclear bazookas used by the Zaku were designed to kill individual ships. As mentioned in the above posts, nuclear weapons are considerably less effective in a vacuum, but ... if the nuke penetrates a warship's armour, it stops being in a vacuum when it enters the ship's atmosphere. And then, as they say, boom.

[CYNICISM AT IT'S BEST]

but you're still forgeting that somethign like that would still put out a gravity well as a result of the nuclear reaction.

[DeltasTaii]

As I recall, the Zaku and GP02A nukes differ by the former being tactical (meant for being used in battle) and the latter strategic (used to blow up something important).

Since the GP02 is packing one heck of a strategic nuclear warhead it'd seem, the power differences end up fairly spectacular.

[Jynx]

As it has been mentioned before, nuclear weapons in space are reduce in their power due to the lack of a blast wave.

This however does not negate the fact that realistically, they are your best option for space combat in nearly all scenarios. Conventional explosives are too low in yield to even marginally damage nearby craft and MS without large amounts of shrapnel. The solution is to saturate the enemies occupied space with nukes, keep in mind that it's effectiveness is greatly reduced so you'll want either numbers, high yield, or a combination of both.

Nuke equipped Zaku II's wouldn't have been on suicide missions unless they just fired from a very close range, that said, I really do see the Physalis' primary development as a terrestrial nuclear delivery vehicle, as in space it's really negligible to provide that amount of shielding unless you intend to be very close to the blast.

In addition, why do you need a huge bazooka to fire a nuke? A nuclear weapon could be fitted in to a normal Rakaten 880mm bazooka, or even in a panzerfaust. You could even have a nuclear rifle, if you utilized the technology that developed the Davy Crockett tactical nuke, you could develop cartridges for a MS held rapid fire weapon.

[CYNICISM AT IT'S BEST]

I'm thinking that maybe it was a kind of enhanced bazooka, like a linear cannon type deal to give the the projectile more kick, just a theory

[jam!]

I'm unable to remember the discussion or find the threads but I know that a while ago there was discussion behind why when the Physalis fired the nuke, it erupted from the bazooka like a large blast. Of course, the discussion wasn't regarding that scene as an animation error.

I would normally agree that a nuclear bazooka should fire a nuclear warhead however the Physalis' nuclear bazooka seemed to start the chain reaction within the actual chamber of the bazooka. Perhaps what happened is that the Mk. 82 nuke's chemical reaction was begun within the bazooka hence when Gato pulled the final firing trigger the bright light we saw emitting from the barrel was the nuke as it sped out of the bazooka and was on its high-speed course to the Birmingham. Perhaps the reason for this was to avoid the possibility of the nuke being disabled after being launched or even being knocked off-course since the chain reaction would've already started and hence the nuke would be so volatile that any tampering with it would result in it exploding immediately. This would also support the animation that the Birmingham was struck directly with the warhead.

That's my assumption regarding the matter of the Physalis' bazooka.
However, I do agree that all of the Physalis' equipment wasn't necessary for a MS to launch a nuke.

[Kenji]

You mean the warhead is technically in the process of exploding as it's being launched? Tell me if I'm not getting that right.

[Jynx]

IIRC, the animation for 0083 differs from the actual manga in that the manga just had the nuke fire, and it didn't do as much damage to the fleet as in the animated version. I'd say the additional huge blast of light from the Physalis' bazooka was more for viewers, and doesn't have so much a purpose as providing an "cool" factor.

Alternatively...

What if the Physalis' bazooka is specially designed to launch a warhead that has a lasting coating of beam protection. In this hypothesis, the bazooka itself is firing a large but low intensity beam to both disguise the physical location of the warhead (even prevent the enemy from knowing it was a nuke entirely, due to sensor interference) and confusing the target so that they cannot respond to the threat.

This way the target believes they are under fire from a MPC or beam weapon, and responds accordingly, instead of implementing anti-missile countermeasures.

[jam!]

Kenji > Yup, that's what I was suggesting.

Jynx > That's an interesting idea.