GAT-01 Strike Dagger

"...Strike Dagger may seem like a step backwards compared to the Strike, but why bother striking once with a sword when you can stab a dozen times with a dagger?""

- Unknown Alliance Engineer "No...No you are not listening to me Admiral! I am telling you that this machine is not ready for Full Mass Production, its only a test bed for movement trails which means that it has some problems..."

- Doctor Adam McKay, NIA Engineer, Head of Mobile Suit Development

The GAT-01 Strike Dagger, is the first Mass Produced Full-On Mobile Suit developed for use of the Earth Alliance. However the higher-ups in the Alliance pushed for this machine to be produced when in reality it is only a test bed and not ready for full production. Even then on paper it is still a good mobile suit, just one that has several bugs and such in the design from being a test bed.

General Overview
After the shuttle from the AFS Menelaos arrived at San Diego Spaceport with some limited data on the GAT-X105 Strike and other mobile suits operating from the AFS Archangel the higher-ups at JOSH-A ordered an immediate crash-program to develop a full-on mass production mobile suit using this data. This data along with operational data from the various GAT-01D Long Dagger equipped experimental combat teams would be handed over to the National Industrial Alliance (NIA), a small group of weapon manufactures, based in the city of Detroit who would be reasonable for this program.

The NIA would soon develop a working mass production trail test type unit which would be known as the GAT-X1 Strike Mass Production Trial Type and would produce a dozen units of this design for general frame testing and operating system calibration. A few weeks later found the frame testing done and work progressing on creating the needed Natural-Use Operating System for the mobile suit. However soon after this the large NIA Detroit Factory would be visited by several Earth Alliance Admiralty and civilian leaders who would see the produced mobile suits undergoing final testing including movement trials. This would lead to the group of higher ups ordering the NIA to start full production of the trial type as the general mobile suit of the Earth Alliance. The NIA higher-ups would fulfill this request over the protests of many of the project directors over the mobile suit only being a test type not ready for production.

The GAT-X1 Strike Mass Production Trial Type would then be renamed to the GAT-01 Strike Dagger and would start production at the Detroit production plant. The NIA would quickly go through with an initial production run of a hundred fifty units of the new Strike Dagger. Meanwhile the directors of the NIA Testing and Development Division would go on with their testing and construct a new set of test types for their the use of future Strike Pack testing. The older dozen testing units would then undergo a quick refitting and equipping them with the recently developed weapons for the Strike Dagger along with a new dual-seat cockpit. These old units would then be used for pilot training along with a number of converted GAT-01D Long Daggers.

Soon after the first production run of the new Strike Dagger were finished around late April saw a few troubles with the production lines which would delay any further production runs for the unit. This was mostly due to a delay in the development of a Natural-Use Operating System along with a couple minor problems with the production line themselves. Soon the problems would be fixed and the arrival of the AFS Archangel along with its gathered battle data at JOSH-A would allow the completion of the operating system.

With everything fixed and ready a second run of the Strike Dagger was started while pilot training was entering its final stages and organization of the mobile suit units began. However when only twenty-four units where produced the second run was halted as the Battle of Panama showed some weaknesses in the design. This had the Earth Alliance around a hundred thirty machines ready for any further combat and the NIA would then be asked to look into fixing the Strike Dagger’s weaknesses or somehow develop a new mobile suit for use the Earth Alliance in its planned counter-offensive against ZAFT.

The NIA would soon use the data on the Strike Dagger plus the data on their new GAT-01A1 Dagger units to develop the newer GAT-02L Dagger L. The Earth Alliance would then order a full-on mass production of the new unit after the Battle of Orb fully showed them the weakness of the Strike Dagger design. Even then the remaining Strike Dagger units would be handed over to some of the weaker members of the Earth Alliance including the United States of South America.

Overall the GAT-01 Strike Dagger despite its problems was quite a good unit with it being quite superior over the old ZGMF-1017 GINN of ZAFT. However thanks to its rushed development it has several notable weaknesses in the design including weak EMP shielding, no Strike Pack capability, a very weak battery power plant, and a few more minor weaknesses. Thanks to its weak battery it could only use the low-end M703 beam carbine instead the full-sized M702 beam rifle. Even then it did pave the way for the development of the GAT-01A1 Dagger and GAT-02L Dagger L.

M703 40mm Beam Carbine
Thanks to its faulty, low-power, battery the Strike Dagger is only able to use the small M703 Beam Carbine instead of the full-on Beam Rifle like the M702. While this weapon can and does one-shot enemy mobile suits it does nothing against even the smallest form of Anti-Beam Coating.

GAU-8M1 52mm Machine Gun
The GAU-8M1 Machine Gun is the weapon of choice for the earlier Long Dagger Mobile Suits, and is said to be superior over the low-powered M703. Therefore it comes to no surprise some Strike Daggers are equipped with this weapon instead of the beam carbine.

GAT-01T Trainer Dagger
The twelve trail type mobile suits where refitted into training units for the purpose of training pilots for the GAT-01 Strike Dagger. They are not that much different from the regular Strike Dagger just sporting an orange paint job and a dual-seat cockpit. The first few weeks of training these units had to make do with a pared-down AI-OS before the Natural-Use Operating System was finished. After the Strike Dagger was removed from combat service a further twelve units would be refitted into this variant.

GAT-01N Nuke Dagger
A proposed variant that is equipped with a pair of nuclear missile launchers over the shoulder for the use of the Peacemaker Force. However the Peacemaker Force would make do with older TS-MA2 Moebius Mobile Armors for delivering nuclear missiles to their target. Thankfully this proposal would later be used for the development of the AQM/E-M09N Trinity Striker, a duel-nuclear missile launcher similar to the proposed launchers of the Nuke Dagger.

SAAT-01A Facon
When the GAT-01 Strike Dagger was removed from Combat Service by the Earth Alliance they would hand over forty of the remaining units to the United States of South America. Soon after delivery the mobile suits would undergo a small refit cycle by the South American Military mainly fixing some of the problems with design. After this refit they would be retitled SAAT-01A Facon and become some of the only mobile weapons of the South American military for a length time.

GAT-R1 Dirk
After the end of the Bloody Valentine War the basic Strike Dagger design would be further refined into the GAT-R1 Dirk by Actaeon Industries and exported to smaller nations including the Republic of East Asia and South African Union. The Dirk would be quite superior over the older Strike Dagger and would have the majority of the design problems fixed. However the design was still inferior to the newer GAT-02L2 Dagger L2 design and the even newer GAT-04 Windam. Even then it did give some of the smaller nation’s access to mobile suits. Overtime many of these machines would end up on the black market and thanks to this become quite popular with pirate groups.