Big Max
MAN-04 Big Max is the Newtype Mobile Armor It was Piloted by Dan Renato.
Technology
The Big Max is the Mobile Armor in which the designers had completely disregarded the concept of high speed and mobility, which had been the key factor to the success of their mobile suits and other mobile armors, and focused completely on the Big Zam's offensive and defensive capabilities. Approaching the size of a battleship, the MA-08 Big Zam features none of the living quarters or storage areas found on ships designed to operate independently for long periods of time. Instead all of its internal components; including its engine, multiple fusion reactors, armor, I-Field generator, and cockpit; are focused on improving the Big Zam's combat abilities making it a much more efficient and destructive weapon.
The massive, oblong body was supported by two legs and dwarfed mobile suits in size, as it stood 60 meters in height and weighed close to 2000 tons when fully loaded. Its forward-mounted mega particle gun could destroy several battleships with a single shot, and the body also housed twenty eight smaller particle guns that could lay down 360 degrees of fire. For additional protection, should a mobile weapon get inside the range of the twenty-eight particle guns, the claws on the Big Zam's feet are actually air-to-air missiles that can easily crush any of the Earth Federation's mobile weapons.
Because of its size and poor maneuverability, it had an I-Field installed on its underbelly to protect it from beam weapons, and it relied on its bulk to survive projectile attacks. All of this equipment required four large power plants to operate, and as a result Big Zam overheated quickly and could not be used for more than 20 minutes in battle.
Armaments
- Large Mega Particle Gun
The primary weapon of the MA-08 Big Zam is a massive mega particle gun that sits prominently in the center of the mobile armor's body. This mega particle gun draws a vast amount of energy from the four fusion reactors, allowing it to fire a massive mega particle beam that can destroy multiple battleships in a single shot. It is the most powerful weapon used by any mobile weapon or battleship, second only to the superweapons employed by both sides.
- Anti-Aircraft Mega Particle Gun
The main secondary weapons of the MA-08 Big Zam are twenty-eight anti-aircraft mega particle guns that line the middle of the Big Zam's torso, completely encircling it with a break for the large mega particle gun. The positioning of the anti-aircraft mega particle guns, and their higher firing rate, provides the Big Zam with 360-degree defense against smaller, more maneuverable mobile weapons, such as mobile suits, which can avoid the large mega particle gun's beam. However, their positioning is also a weakness because if a mobile suit can get directly above, below, or simply gets close enough to the armor, it will be out of the anti-aircraft mega particle guns' targeting range.
- Air-to-Air Missile
To protect the Big Zam's undercarriage, a blind spot not covered by the mega particle guns, the Big Zam is outfitted with 6 large air-to-air missiles disguised as claws on the mobile suit's feet. These massive air-to-air missiles are almost the size of a mobile suit and are not explosive in nature. Instead, the missiles are designed to crush enemy machines with their size and mass.
- 105mm Vulcan Gun
A tertiary weapon fitted in the main body of the MA-08 Big Zam are a pair of shell-firing 105mm vulcan guns, placed to cover a blind spot not protected by the mega particle guns. Though larger than most vulcan guns, the Big Zam's 105mm vulcan guns, the first to be used in a Zeon mobile weapon, can still only deliver light damage to the armor of a mobile suit and are better suited for shooting down lightly armored targets such as missiles.
Special Equipment
- I-Field Barrier Generator
When Minovsky particles are released into the air or into open space, the positive and negative particles spontaneously align themselves into a three-dimensional cubic lattice. Due to the repulsive and electrostatic forces between the Minovsky particles, this lattice functions as a kind of a force field, which is referred to as an I-field. This field has difficulty permeating conductive materials like metal, water, and plasma, and it exerts a repulsive force against mega particles. An I-field is used to to deflect enemy mega particle beams. Due to its high power requirements, the I-field generator originally could only be installed in large mobile weapons. When the generator is activated, the I-field forms an invisible barrier around the mobile weapon, protecting it from incoming beam attacks. However, this barrier has no effect against solid objects like missiles and projectiles, and beam weapons can still be used at point blank range within the barrier's boundary.