Ural

Unit type: attack carrier
Dimensions: length 289 meters, width 183 meters
Armament: 12 x 2-barrel GN beam cannon; 20 x anti-beam gas mortar; 12 x GN missile launcher; 8 x 3-tube GN antiaircraft laser phalanx
Powerplant: 2 x argon-cooled nuclear reactor, output rated at 105000 kW; 12 x GN drive, output theoretically unlimited based on remaining particle supply
Propulsion: 8 x MPD thruster
Hangar capacity: 84 mobile suits and 2 mobile armors or 96 mobile suits
Catapults: 6

The Ural-class is the flagship of the Earth Union's expansion of its presence in space, and the first dedicated space combat vessel fielded by the world government.

The boxy, bulky attack carrier is a heavily armed mobile suit mothership and command vessel, capable of fielding a massive number of mobile suits with its seven individual hangars. The vessel's power systems, reactor cores, GN drives, and other provisions are all positioned in the long hulls that extend from the rear of the carrier's main hull, which is entirely given over to the storage and maintenance of embarked mobile weapons. The crew quarters, bridge, and command centers are placed in the tall conning towers above and below the central hull - viewed in cross-section, the Ural is better compared to a hangar with engines and weapons than a space vessel. Six rectangular hangars are mounted three to a side on the Ural's longitudinal axis, each capable of fitting twelve mobile suits stacked front-to-back, while the main hull is given over to a single large hangar capable of housing another two dozen machines with the remaining room given over to maintenance facilities. The central hangar can also be given over to the storage of very large mobile armors that the Union has developed as their next-generation attack units.

While its main weapons are the incredble number of mobile weapons it can field, the Ural is also very well armed to compensate for its enormous size and unwieldly handling. A full dozen GN beam cannons of the same type forming the Baikal-class battleship's main armament are positioned across the Ural's hull. The intelligent placement allows for every cannon to be fired fore or aft, and the turrets' full rotation allows for no less than six to be directed at an incoming target from any angle. Again copied from the Baikal are a number of anti-beam gas mortars, capable of releasing a particle-laced vapor that can effectively screen against incoming beam weapon attacks. A row of GN missile launchers are positioned in the widest portion of the hull on the exterior of the outer hangars; likewise, banks of "vertical launch" antiaircraft laser phalanxes are positioned on the roofs of the hangars for screening incoming missiles and local defense against enemy mobile suits. The Ural's armor protection is on the same level as the Baikal's to maximize its survivability in a combat situation since it is quite poor at maneuvering.

Ural-class attack carriers make up a fairly small portion of the Earth Union's space forces. The carrier's very large size, combined with its inability to survive atmospheric re-entry or operate in a terrestrial environment, will likely ensure that only a limited number of the vessels will see action with the Union's present strategic goals. However, analysts have gone further to posit that the ready deployment of such large space combat warships suggests that the Earth Union's long term plans constitute a need for large-scale fleet operations in space, especially those involving large numbers of GN-powered mobile suits - whether this remains speculative in nature remains to be seen.