The ZGMF-1017 GINN is a mass produced Mobile Suit introduced in the year

ime Mobile Suit Gundam SEED.

Features

ZAFT's first official Mobile Suit, the ZGMF-1017 GINN, was developed by the Heinlein Design Bureau, one of PLANT's military design offices. It boasted greater versatility and expandability than its predecessor, the YMF-01B Proto GINN, and was capable of using a wide variety of weapons. While the GINN inherited much of its design from the Proto GINN, its mobility and maneuverability were greatly improved with improved thrusters, including a pair of large thrusters in the back. Although classified as a zero-gravity maneuvering "fighter", the GINN could operate both in space and on Earth.

In addition to the head-mounted single-eye, which served as the machine's main camera, the GINN had a multifunctional ridge-shaped sensor array with a camera at its base (with an LLLTV function), allowing the pilot to collect information on the battlefield in real time. This system would later be used by many ZAFT Mobile Suits developed between CE 70 and 71. Another notable feature of the GINN was that it had multiple anchor points for mounting or storing its weapons, located on the left, right and at the back of the waist, as well as the side of her legs.

Most of the GINN's weapons were designed to combat the OMNI Enforcer's Mobile Armor, including its primary weapons, the 76mm Heavy Assault Machine Gun and the Heavy Blade. To adapt to various battlefield situations and combat requirements, such as anti-ship combat or fortress assault, a wide range of optional weapons have been developed for the GINN. Among them was the Type D (meaning “destruction”) equipment, the heaviest of the GINN weapons, designed for anti-fortress operations.

The combat capabilities of a single GINN were equivalent to those of three to five Mobile Armor TS-MA2 Moebius used by the OMNI Enforcer, and it could single-handedly destroy an enemy escort ship. This led to ZAFT gaining the upper hand in the early stages of the war. Due to the excellent versatility and large production of the GINN, many variants have been developed and deployed, such as the ZGMF-1017M GINN High Maneuver Type tuned for pilotage aces and the ZGMF-LRR704B GINN Long Range Reconnaissance Type for recognition. Additionally, there were GINN units tailored to their pilots, such as ZGMF-1017 Miguel's GINN piloted by Miguel Aiman.

• Self-destruct system

The GINN's cockpit has a lever to trigger the machine's self-destruct system. A countdown begins when this lever is pulled, giving the pilot one minute to escape before the GINN explodes.

Armaments

• MA-M3 Heavy Blade: A physical double-edged blade developed by Martius Arsenals using the same molecular processing technology as the Laurasia-class outer armor. Its blade had incredible strength and could easily split an OMNI Enforcer's Mobile Armor in two. When not in use, it is stored on the left side, on the skirt armor.

• MMI-M8A3 76mm Heavy Assault Machine Gun: A ballistic machine gun developed by Maius Military Industry, the 76mm heavy machine gun was the standard armament of the GINN, as it could take full advantage of its high mobility. It was the first automatic firearm developed for a Mobile Suit and had two firing modes: semi-automatic (for precision fire) and automatic (for rapid fire). It was most suited to medium-range combat. Its standard ammunition was the high-velocity armor-piercing (HVAP) rounds. It was stored on the rear skirt armor when not in use.
• M66 "Canus" Short-range Guided Missile Launcher: A Type D (meaning "destruction") weapon for attacking enemy strongholds, this was a pair of hand-carried missile launchers. Each launcher was loaded with two small missiles and had two large missiles mounted on the side.
• M68 "Pardus" Short-range Guided 3-barrel Missile Launcher: A Type D weapon, this was a pair of missile pods each containing three missiles. Used in conjunction with the GINN radar, it was capable of tracking a target in a limited way. Although an attachment to carry it by hand was developed in parallel, it was primarily mounted on anchor points on the legs, as this frees up the GINN's hands to carry other weapons.
• M69 "Barrus Kai" Heavy Ion Cannon: A Type D weapon, this was a cartridge beam cannon. Each cartridge had enough power to fire three shots. Compared to later ray rifles, they were very large and unwieldy. It was used less often than "Canus" and "Cattus" due to its low effectiveness.
• M68 "Cattus" 500mm Recoilless Rifle: A large bazooka-type weapon more suited to anti-ship combat. It was fed by a replaceable top-mounted magazine, allowing it to quickly reload or switch to other types of ammunition. It could also be used to attack an enemy fortress, and although it was originally developed for the GINN, it was often used by other MS as well.
• Sniper Rifle: The GINN was able to use the sniper rifle normally equipped with the ZGMF-LRR704B GINN Long Range Reconnaissance Type. During Operation Spitbreak, a GINN so equipped attacked LCAM-01XA Archangel during JOSH-A's ship's attempted escape.

Variants

• TMF/S-3 GINN OCHER Type
• UWMF/S-1 GINN WASP Type
• YF-3A GINN FEMWS
• ZGMF-1017 GINN Ceremonial Decoration Type
• ZGMF-1017 Elijah's GINN
• ZGMF-1017 Gai's GINN
• ZGMF-1017 Hinstn's GINN
• ZGMF-1017 Miguel's GINN
• ZGMF-1017 Un'no's GINN
• ZGMF-1017 Vair's GINN
• ZGMF-1017 Works GINN
• ZGMF-1017M GINN High Maneuver Type
• ZGMF-1017AS GINN Assault Type
• ZGMF-LRR704B GINN Long Range Reconnaissance Type
• ZGMF/TAR-X1 GINN Tactical Air Reconnaissance Type
• ZGMF-1017 GINN Insurgent Type
• ZGMF-1017 GINN Tempester
• ZGMF-1017 GINN Fuego
• ZGMF-1017GR GINN Gladiator
• ZGMF-1017Q GINN-R
• ZGMF-1017 Rau Le Creuset's GINN

History

The successor to the Proto GINN, the ZGMF-1017 GINN, debuted in CE 69, when the space forces of PLANT sponsor nations threatened to destroy PLANT colonies that produced food. In the first ever military action carried out by Mobile Suits, ZAFT deployed the GINN, which soundly defeated the Mobile Armor of the sponsoring nations and expelled the space forces of the said nations, despite being greatly outnumbered.

During the First Alliance-PLANT War, the GINN serves as ZAFT's primary MS due to its versatility, capable of operating in both zero and sub-gravity without having to be modified. Since the start of the war, it has had a clear advantage over Alliance AMs, allowing ZAFT to maintain the upper hand despite being numerically inferior to the OMNI Enforcer. As it is primarily armed with physical or ballistic weapons, which were rendered useless by the Phase Shift armor used by the GAT-X series of the OMNI Enforcer, its advantage quickly began to fade after the appearance of the GAT-X series during the war. Eventually it was replaced by the ZGMF-600 GuAIZ, but it still formed the bulk of ZAFT's MS forces until the end of the war.

There are also a number of GINNs used by groups not affiliated with ZAFT, such as mercenaries like the Serpent Tail group or freelancer Kaite Madigan, who repaint or customize their units. A GINN was used by Jean Carry, pilot and coordinator of the OMNI Enforcer, whose unit was painted white to identify it on the battlefield.

During the Second Alliance-PLANT War in CE 73, the GINN was largely eliminated by the new ZGMF-1000 ZAKU Warrior. However, some variants of the GINN and normal GINNs are still used by ZAFT forces, primarily those on Earth.

Did you know?

• The Proto-GINN closely resembles the Universal Century MS-05B Zaku I. Like its worthy successor, the ZGMF-1017 GINN, closely resembles the MS-06 Zaku II. The GINN and Zaku lineages played similar roles in their respective timelines, as the events of the Cosmic Era were largely derived from those of the beginning of the Universal Century.

• The GINN's weaponry is named after the animals. “Barrus” is Latin for Elephant, “Pardus” is Latin for Leopard, “Cattus” is Latin for Cat, and “Canus” is a derivative of “Canis” which is Latin for dog. The change to 'Canus' is likely to keep the pattern of nouns ending in 'us'.

• GINN is named after the jinn, a spirit from Islamic and pre-Islamic Arabic mythology.