GAT-01A1 105 Dagger

"The GAT-01A1 105 Dagger is developed for two reasons, one to gather further data on Strike Packs and wither we should use a system on a mass produced machine, and two to give our elite, veteran pilots a mobile suit that they can use to its full limits..."

- Doctor Adam McKay, Head of NIA Mobile Suit Development

The GAT-01A1 105 Dagger, or sometimes known as Elite Dagger, is the high performance ace pilot machine for the Earth Alliance. It is not only Strike Pack Capable but sports no real changes from the Original Strike G-Weapon, therefore the reason for the similar head unit.

General Overview
After the decision of the Earth Alliance High Command to go through with the full mass production of the GAT-01 Strike Dagger as their new mass produced mobile suit the mobile suit development team of the National Industrial Alliance turned their attention to a new mobile suit design which would become the GAT-01A1 105 Dagger. The aptly named 105 Dagger is basically a full-on produced version of the GAT-X105 Strike G-Weapon with some major improvements. This new design was aimed to be an elite-use machine as well as full-on testing in the use of strike packs on mass produced mobile suits.

The new 105 Dagger is at its very roots a production version of the Strike G-Weapon complete with phase shift armor and capable of using Strike Packs. However the NIA improved on the basic design including a set of ES02 Beam Sabers to solve one of the problems found in the basic form of the Strike. They also improved on the older Phase Shift Armor and created the Trans-Phase Shift Armor which solved another problem with the Strike. Another improvement was adding a second battery to the design allowing further combat time when using power-hungry equipment or weapons.

The Earth Alliance and NIA would also use the 105 Dagger to test out the feasibility of having a production type mobile suit using the Strike Pack System. Therefore the machine was capable of using every single original strike packs along with a handful of newer strike packs including the Gunbarrel Pack and Assault Pack. The result of this program would see the Earth Alliance fully getting into the Strike Pack System and green-lighting further Strike Pack construction which sees the construction of further production lines for Strike Packs.

All in all the 105 Dagger thanks to it being not really tuned-down like the Strike Dagger or the later Dagger L is quite a superior mobile suit. Only the new Earth Alliance and ZAFT G-Weapons were superior to this mobile suit. However all of this came with a steep price tag which saw only around two dozen of the machine produced over the course of the reminder of the war and none would be produced after the war besides spare parts. Even then a later variant the GAT-03A2R Slaughter Dagger would be produced in larger numbers late in the Second Bloody Valentine War.

M702 57mm High-Energy Beam Rifle
The Main Weapon of the Dagger L, and is often used by the 105 Dagger was well, but many pilots still prefer the M704 over the M702.

M704 50mm High-Energy Beam Rifle
The more preferred weapon of the 105 Dagger, and is equipped with same grenade launcher as the M700 rifle used by the Rubicon and Duel G-Weapons.

AQM/E-01 Aile Pack
The new produced version of the Aile Pack is basically the same as the original design just removes the beam sabers from the design and replaces them with another set of thrusters. This makes an Aile-equipped machine quite maneuverable. As well as capable of making the machine of full atmospheric flight instead of limited flight of the original design. There is also some talk about producing a full-on space combat version of this pack but nothing has been done. Another version is produced for the use of the Earth Alliance’s Skygrasper Modular Combat Planes.

AQM/E-02 Sword Pack
The mass produced version of the Sword Pack is not much different from the original prototype version used by the Strike G-Weapon. A few minor changes were made but not that important in the scheme of things. However a later variant of the design removes the shoulder unit and replaces it with a second anti-ship sword. The Duel Sword Packs becomes quite popular with some Dagger L equipped units after the end of the war along with a handful of pilots equipped with the 105 Dagger.

AQM/E-03 Launcher Pack
The last of the original strike packs is the Launcher Pack and its mass produced counterpart is one of the most changed of the original three. Basically the “Agni” is slightly downsized for mass production, but still quite powerful. Another change is the addition of a second shoulder unit, a copy of the first, is equipped to free shoulder giving the unit far more firepower in the form of another heavy Vulcan cannon and gun launchers.

AQM/E-X4 Gunbarrel Pack
One of the handful of new Strike Packs developed soon after the introduction of the 105 Dagger and is based heavily on the earlier Zero Dagger. It is basically a Strike Pack version of the Zero Dagger’s backpack combined with some improvements including an attached gatling cannon along with the linear guns in the gunbarrels changed to beam cannons. Thanks to a small number of remaining pilots capable of using such a system only five were produced.

AQM/E-M5 Assault Strike Pack
The second of the new packs developed after the introduction of the 105 Dagger that basically gives an equipped mobile suit a pair of heavy anti-ship beam cannons and a handheld recoilless cannon. However the design is only produced in small numbers thanks to the heavy power requirement of the pack prevents its use outside of the 105 Dagger. Later the AQM/E-M11 Doppelhorn Pack replaces this pack on the Dagger L, though the Assault is still in use by some units equipped with Slaughter Daggers.

GAT/A-01E1 Buster Dagger
The first Buster Dagger is heavily passed on the 105 Dagger thanks to it originally developed as a Strike Pack for the 105 Dagger. Therefore it possesses Trans-Phase Shift Armor and duel-batteries of the 105 Dagger though it does sport a head based on the Buster G-Weapon instead of the Strike based head of the 105 Dagger.

GAT-03A2R Slaughter Dagger
A variant produced late in the Second Bloody Valentine War for the use of several elite units including Phantom Pain. The only real change is the use of a Dagger-like head instead of G-Weapon inspired head.