AMD-05 Sentinel

"The AMD-05 Sentinel was quite a departure from any other mobile suit design in development at the time, thanks in part to its recently introduced lightwave particle pulse thruster that serves as its main thruster unit..."

- Taken from an interview of Engineer Billy Katagiri after the public unveiling of the mobile suit

The AMD-05 Sentinel, is the one of the first true Second Generation Mobile Suit Design introduced by anyone beating out the STF-01D Wyvern Late Type by only a few days. It soon becomes the main mobile suit of choice for the Altairan Self-Defense Force replacing the aging AMD-02 Guardian. It also serves as a departure from any introduced mobile suit before it due to its vastly different body style something never seen before not to mention the introduction of a mass produced lightwave particle based thruster unit that is the center of the design. It soon becomes as respected as its older counterpart the Guardian as the war started to heat up.

Technical and Historical Notes
When the Bloody Valentine War started the Altairan Self Defense Forces would start to look to replace their aging Guardian series mobile suits. They would go through numerous failed prototype after failed prototype before they finally MarsSec Mobile Suit Works would hire young engineer Billy Katagiri who had different ideas on mobile suit engineering than any other engineer. It would be under Katagiri that would finally see Altair and MarsSec getting a brand-new second generation mobile suit in the form of the AMD-04A Protector. However this mobile suit was a sort of wild horse therefore only a handful of pilots where bale to control it therefore after a brief partnership with Orb’s Mobile Suit Warehouse and Development Group would see the introduction of the new AMD-05A Sentinel which would be the final product of Katagiri’s team.

The Sentinel would be vastly superior over the older Guardian and would soon find itself being the new primary mobile suit of the ASDF. Thanks to the data gathered from the AMD-04 Protector and MSWAD’s Vanguard Prototype would see a superior mobile suit equipped with beam weapons and sporting a tuned down version of the Protectors Lightwave Particle Thruster Unit. Not to mention sporting the new Universal Operating System introduced by Sphinx Heavy Industries which was traded to MarsSec for their Lightwave Particle Thruster Tech. Overall the Sentinel would one of the superior Second Generation Mobile Suit Designs, with only the Astray and GuAIZ being better then the Sentinel on paper.

Like the Guardian the ASDF and MarsSec would introduce several variant designs for dedicated missions and such. One such variant would be the new Sentinel Command Type which would be developed for the use of commanders. Another variant would be the Sentinel Cannon Type which sports a heavy cannon over one shoulder replacing that shoulder’s beam saber. Also thanks to the success of the Vanguard Prototype G-Weapon would introduce a new Sentinel High Maneuver Type which sports paired Lightwave Particle Thrusters built into the shoulders of the unit.

Starting in early February the Altairan Self Defense would build many of this mobile suit to replace its aging Guardian series mobile suit. It would also be in limited use by the Lunar Colonial Alliance for their Defense Militia while a few others would fall into the hands of the Paladin Knights Mercenaries Group. All in all the Sentinel Mobile Suit was quite a good mobile suit thanks in part to its lightweight design and the lightwave particle thruster which made it highly maneuverable.

Variants

 * AMD-05C Sentinel Cannon, a variant that sports an anti-ship assault cannon over one shoulder replacing that shoulder’s beam saber storage rack.
 * AMD-05E Sentinel Scout, a variant that sports superior sensor equipment and brand new mirage colloid tech that allows it to be a great scout mobile suit.
 * AMD-05S Sentinel Special, a variant built for ace pilots and commanders which sports paired high end thruster binders along with paired Lightwave Thrusters similar to the later Orb-developed Astray Vanguard Mobile Suit.
 * AMD-06A Sentinel Kai, a variant and refit developed after the end of the war that sports improved tech and lightwave based shield techonology.

Development Notes

 * Based on the GN-XIII from Gundam 00 while the others new Altair mobile suits are based on other GN-X Series Machines from 00.