RX-78GP03 Gundam "Dendrobium Orchis"
								Technical Data and General Information
							Model number: RX-78GP03 Code name: Gundam "Dendrobium Orchis" Unit type: prototype space attack use mobile weapon Manufacturer: Anaheim Electronics Corporation Operator: Earth Federal Forces Rollout: 28 October UC 0083 First deployment: 11 November UC 0083 Accommodation: unmanned, controlled by docked RX-78GP03S Gundam "Dendrobium Stamen" Dimensions: overall length 140.0 meters; unarmed length 73.0 meters; overall height 38.5 meters; overall width 62.0 meters Weight: empty 226.4 metric tons; max gross 453.1 metric tons Construction: gundarium alloy on semi-monocoque frame Powerplant: Minovsky type ultracompact fusion reactor, output rated at 38900 kW Propulsion: rocket thrusters: 6 x 377500 kg Performance: maximum thruster acceleration 5.00 G Equipment and design features: I-field beam-deflecting barrier generator, externally mounted on main body Fixed armaments: mega beam cannon, mounted on main body; 2 x large claw, each mounts large beam saber; 2 x weapons container pod Optional weapons container pod armament: 3-tube large missile pod; 108-tube micromissile pod; chain mine, rocket-guided; folding shield for GP03S Stamen; folding bazooka for GP03S Stamen; XBR-BOWA M-82A beam rifle w/jitte for GP03S Stamen
			Technical and Historical Notes
	During its military reconstruction following the devastating One Year War of the Universal Century Era, the Earth Federation contracted a private company, Anaheim Electronics, to develop a series of new Gundam-model mobile suits to serve as conceptual testbeds for new and improved mobile suit technology. The third of these new prototypes to be produced by Anaheim was the RX-78GP03 Gundam, code-named "Dendrobium." The Dendrobium was composed of two units: the RX-78GP03S Gundam mobile suit itself, code-named "Stamen"; and the large RX-78GP03 Gundam mobile weapon unit, code-named "Orchis". The Stamen was, for the most part, a standard type of mobile suit, although it did incoporate some differences from other "normal" Gundam prototypes. Instead of the costly Core Block System, the cockpit was of the panoramic monitor/linear seat type, a concept originally tested in the RX-78NT-1 Gundam "Alex" during the latter days of the One Year War. This cockpit configuration provided the pilot with an almost unlimited field of vision and would serve as the basis for the standard mobile suit cockpit to be used in all designs thereafter. The usual head vulcan guns were absent, replaced by an advanced sensor and avionics package. The backpack was composed of a "docking binder" system to link up with and control the Orchis mobile weapon component. The arms also each incorporated a large, folding manipulator arm, which was used to retrieve the Stamen's own weapons (such as beam rifles, folding bazookas, etc.) from their storage racks in the Orchis' weapons container pods. The GP03S Stamen was completed at Anaheim's Von Braun City lunar factory and delivered to their La Vie En Rose research dockship, where the Orchis component had also been completed. The only thing left to make the GP03 field-ready was piloting and combat data. However, with the shutdown of the Gundam Development Project, Earth Federal Forces security officer Nakahha Nakato dismissed all of the Anaheim research staff except for systems engineer Lucette Audevie. With the threat of the Delaz Fleet and the impending colony drop crisis, Lucette strongly argued for the GP03's completion, all to no avail. To face this desparate situation, Gundam pilot Kou Uraki and the crew of the assault carrier Albion literally hijacked the GP03 - with the assistance of Lucette and at the cost of her life - and quickly fielded the Dendrobium, proving to be a devastating foe to the Delaz fleet escorting their hijacked colony falling towards Earth. On a side note, the Stamen was also developed with the intention of its cockpit block and backpack being replaced with a Core Block System. This Core Block composed of a special Core Fighter II-Sp, with the cockpit/nose section borrowed from the RX-78GP01 Gundam "Zephyranthes"'s own FF-XII Core Fighter II. Although the standard backpack and cockpit block were constructed and installed in the Stamen, the Core Fighter II-Sp was never built (as far as we know).