Petrie

Unit type: land cruiser
Manufacturer: ZAFT (Earth Liberation Army Zel'dovich base)
Dimensions: length 194 meters
Armament: 2 x 360mm cannon, 1 fore, 1 aft; 4 x 2-barrel machine gun, 2 port, 2 starboard; 16-cell vertical launch system, can arm surface-to-surface or antiaircraft missiles; 14 x smoke discharger/flare launcher, 7 port, 7 starboard; 4 x scale torpedo launcher, 4 fore
Powerplant: fast neutron nuclear reactor, output rated at 41000 kW
Propulsion: scale system, 3 emitters on central hull and outboard foils
Hangar capacity: 8 BuCUEs or 6 standard size mobile suits

Tasked with freeing the people of Earth from its tyrannical governments and furthering a pro-Coordinator agenda, ZAFT's Earth Liberation Army began its drop operations without any specialized military hardware for use in a terrestrial environment. After PLANT began developing a number of unique mobile suits for the task, ZAFT's planetside forces also devised a series of warships and support craft, among other vehicles, for combat in gravity conditions.

Developed in tandem with the larger Lesseps, the Petrie is a significantly smaller land cruiser intended for use as an escort or patrol vessel. The relatively lightweight trimaran hull-shape presents a fairly small profile from the front, making it seem smaller than many land battleships deployed by the Atlantic Federation. Like the Lesseps, the Petrie makes use of ZAFT's unique propulsion apparatus, the scale system, to propel itself over any type of terrain with loose soil. The cruiser's fairly light weight allows it to move considerably fast, with particularly bold captains actually following their mobile suits into combat for high-intensity attacks. The Petrie's narrow hull is rather cramped due to the comparatively large mobile suit hangar and numerous weapon systems, and employing only a single reactor for electrical power due to space limitations. Hangar space is provided for up to eight BuCUE (or LaGOWE)-type mobile suits, although a slightly smaller number of normal mobile suits can also be carried. Entry or exit is via a large hatch on either side of the hangar blister, allowing the Petrie to deploy its embarked units quite rapidly.

The Petrie's armament consists of two large cannons on opposite ends of the ship, supplemented by a large number of missile launchers in the bow and just ahead of the bridge. Machine guns are emplaced on the outer edges of the outboard foils, as are a quartet of scale torpedo launchers in the bow. These weapons likewise employ the scale system to move through loose soil with great speed, effectively acting as subsurface missiles. Numerous mortars intended to deploy smoke, chaff, flares, and other countermeasures are mounted on either side of the bridge structure.