In the fictional Gundam universe, the Magellan class was a battleship type that was commissioned in UC 0070 as part of the Federation's "70s Armament Reinforcement Plan." These ships fielded seven dual main gun turrets and 14 anti-aircraft guns. Several of these ships were built, and were assigned to be used in cojunction with their Salamis class half-sisters. Originally, these ships were armed with conventional missiles and gun turrets; however these were replaced by beam gun turrets before the outbreak of the One Year War.

At the outset of the One Year War, these battleships began serving as flagships for the Federation's various Space Force Admirals, such as Admiral Revil, Admiral Tianem, and Admiral Watkins. Because these ships were so well armored, they fared somewhat better than their Salamis-class siblings. Magellan-class ships had a tendancy to survive damage that would easily destroy a Salamis class ship, and return to fight later. However, the development and introduction of mobile suits rendered them obsolete, which became obvious as the war dragged on. The Magellan-class fleet was decimated during the Loum Campaign; those left endured heavy casualties during Operation: Star One. At the time, the Pegasus-class mobile suit carriers were becoming the prime striking arm of the Federation; all but the smallest future ships would be required to include mobile suit carrying capacity to be effective combatants. The Federation Admiralty relized this, but due to the lack of available Pegasus class vessles they had to press both the Magellan and Salamis class ships into service as makeshift MS carriers during the Battle of Solomon and the Battle of A Boua Qu.

Despite the superiority of mobile suit based combat, the Federation's engineers were not about to give up on these battleships just yet. Between the end of the One Year War (1 January U.C.0080) and the Federation's naval review in November of U.C.0083 the Magellan class underwent an overhaul. The missile launchers were removed in favor of two additional anti-MS beam gun turrets. More importantly, all of the old style machine guns were replaced with a new kind of small calibur beam turrets which fired slower but stood a better chance of killing an opponent should the beam strike. This refit, known as the Magellan Kai, was intruduced along with the refitted Salimis class vessles during the UC 0083 naval review. However, the Delaz Fleet assault on Konpei Island (formerly Solomon)- including the stolen RX-78GP02 Gundam Physallis and its nuclear bazooka- damaged or destroyed many of the refitted Magellan Kai class ships, forcing the Federation to finally admit that the days of these pre-mobile-suit battleships were at an end.

The Magellan class is named for explorer Ferdinand Magellan. The Magellan class appears in Mobile Suit Gundam, MS Gundam: The 08th MS Team, and Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, although there is evidence to suggest that the Magellan class was used in Zeta Gundam and Double Zeta Gundam.

The Magellans were phased out from UC 0083 to UC 0088, replaced by the Alexandria-class heavy cruiser.

See also

• One Year War
• Universal Century

External links

• The World-Wide Gundam Informational Network (http://www.geocities.com/gundam_uc0079/index.html)
• The Gundam Naval Museum (http://www.geocities.com/gundamships/Mainpage.html)
• MAHQ (http://www.mahq.net/)
• Library of Londonion (UC ship names) (http://side7.gundam.com/rgz/info/uc_ship.html)