GAT-01 Strike Dagger

The Strike Dagger is one of the ultimate demonstrations of the phrase 'Quantity has a quality all its own.' An inferior performer to contemporary designs, it nontheless altered the balance of the Bloody Valentine War in the Earth Alliance's favour.

A massively simplified version of the GAT-X105 Strike Gundam, the Strike Dagger was one of two considered mass-production designs. The other, the GAT-01A1 105 Dagger, had beam-resistant laminate armour, EMP shielding, and a vast array of other technologies, which combined to make it superior to ZAFT's prototype GuAIZ. There was only one problem with the 105 Dagger: it was too complex to easily mass produce, and the EA didn't have the time to spare. Therefore, with time pressing on them, the Earth Alliance high command chose to procure a limited number of 105 Daggers and concentrate on mass-producing the Strike Dagger.

The Strike Dagger's armaments were at least broadly comparable to its contemporaries, consisting of a 57mm beam rifle, a single 75mm 'Igelstellung' Gatling gun in its head, and a beam saber stored on its right shoulder. Unlike the 105 Dagger, however, it was unable to mount Striker Packs, hurting its growth potential.

Its first deployment was at the battle of Porta Panama, defending the last of the EA's mass drivers. There, the Strike Dagger proved superior to the GINNs and other older mobile suits it faced; however, what should have been a victory for the Earth forces turned into a disaster when ZAFT deployed their Gungnir EMP weapon. One of the features the Strike Daggers lacked was EMP shielding, something all ZAFT mobile suits possessed as a matter of course, and the Gungnir devices disabled them en masse.

Afterwards, the Strike Dagger design was hastily revised to include EMP shielding, and those units in service upgraded with it as soon as possible. Less than a month later, the Strike Dagger entered combat once more, this time in a mass amphibious invasion of the Orb Union.

For the first time, the Strike Dagger faced a contemporary mobile suit design in Orb's M1 Astray, and it fared poorly. The M1s were superior to the Strike Dagger, and Orb's pilots had trained on the M1 from the start, instead of being hastily crosstrained F-7D Spearhead or TS-MA2 Moebius pilots. However, numbers told over individual superiority: the Earth Alliance's production capabilities were vastly in excess of Orb's, meaning each lost Strike Dagger was far easier to replace - and the M1 Astray wasn't good enough to score the kill ratios needed to win.

With the Forbidden, Calamity and Raider Gundams acting as a shock brigade to break particularly heavy points of resistance, Orb's M1 Astray units were systematically overwhelmed and destroyed. However, the tactical victories scored by the Strike Dagger units were a strategic loss, as Uzumi Nara Athha triggered the Kaguya mass driver's self-destruct, eliminating the entire reason for the EA's invasion of Orb.

After the conclusion of the invasion of Orb, the Strike Dagger became a common sight, supporting the retaking of the Victoria spaceport - and restoring the Earth Alliance's ability to transfer men and materials to space - and eventually serving as the backbone of the EA fleet engaging in Operation Peacemaker.

The Second Battle of Jachin Due was the climax of the Bloody Valentine War, and the final major action that the Strike Dagger would take part in. And it was here that it would truly prove itself.

The ZAFT and EA forces in this battle were - on paper - evenly matched numerically, but the greater skill of the EA's Strike Dagger pilots was telling: late in the battle, a trio of Strike Daggers engaged and destroyed the M1 Astrays of Asagi Caldwell and Juri Wu Nien, two of Orb's most experienced pilots.

In spite of their performance and their pilots' skill, the Strike Daggers deployed in the Second Battle of Jachin Due suffered hideous casualties, mostly from the firing of ZAFT's GENESIS superlaser (which destroyed approximately 50% of the EA fleet), and with 2nd Jachin Due effectively ending the war, there was no need to rush more mobile suits to the frontlines. As a result, production was shifted to 105 Daggers, and the remaining Strike Dagger inventory was placed in reserve.

Record 1401 - vehicle/ship class - Last update 28 Mar 2007, 23:15:47

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