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Vosgulov
Catapults
Unit
type: attack submarine 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 parallel with a series of amphibious mobile suits, the Vosgulov is a specialized submarine intended to serve as a mobile suit mothership. The submarine has a distinctly bizarre appearance, with a narrow forward hull and four cylindrical hangars attached to a boxy rear portion - the overall shape is less than perfectly hydrodynamic, making the Vosgulov somewhat noisy at higher speeds. However, what it lacks in terms of pure stealth it makes up for in combat-worthiness. In order to take part in typical ZAFT combined arms strategies, the Vosgulov features dedicated hangars with catapults for both standard and amphibious mobile suits. Four "wet bays" with room for two mobile suits each are oriented horizontally on either side of the main hull, allowing for rapid deployment of even ZAFT's large marine mobile suits, while the entire forward hull is given over to a hangar for standard mobile suits to be launched via three vertically-oriented linear catapults. Vosgulovs would usually be deployed with DINNs for aerial support and a combination of GOOhNs and ZnOs for marine usage, with the BABI and ASH supplementing or replacing the initial loadout by the later stages of the war. Four support craft, typically Guuls, can be stored in the small hangars near the aft end of the ship, allowing mobile suits incapable of flight to hitch a ride if necessary. The Vosgulov must surface to open either the support or vertical catapults, however. The submarine's armament is probably the least unconventional of its features, with all weapons mounted in the bulky aft portion of the hull. Eight torpedo launchers allow for engagements of enemy submarines and surface vessels as well as support fire for the Vosgulov's mobile suits, while missile launchers positioned just outside the support hangars are provided for land attack or antiaircraft defense. The prime use of Vosgulov-type submarines came as harassing operations against Atlantic Federation shipping, eventually choking off the flow of supplies and material between Federation headquarters in Brazil and their beleagured field bases in Africa. ZAFT also conducted submarine warfare against Earth Sphere Alliance operations in the south Pacific, and a sudden attack against the Japan-based Iris Corporation was believed to have been launched from a Vosgulov as well. Many of these submarines were destroyed during the Guild attacks against ZAFT's Earth Liberation Army in UC 218, while nearly a dozen fell into the hands of Guild operatives when the Ehlers base's submarine pens were captured. ZAFT ordered all Vosgulovs to be intentionally sunk after the termination of combat operations on Earth, but it is unknown if this order was carried out with uniform compliance. Vosgulov-type submarines have been spotted in remote ports outside of the Earth Union's influence as recently as UC 240, suggesting at least a few are still operating with "second-hand" owners of no-doubt questionable motive.
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