Gundam World Index
UC Timeline
AC Timeline
Space Colonization
The Earth Federation
Zeon and Neo Zeon
Minovsky Physics
Beam Weapons
Mobile Suit Basics
The One Year War
Mobile Suit Classics
Ace Pilot Gallery

Mobile Suit Gundam, Z Gundam, Gundam ZZ, Char's Counterattack, Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, Gundam F91, Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, Gundam 0083: Last Blitz of Zeon, Gundam: The 08th MS Team, and Gundam W: Endless Waltz are copyright Sotsu Agency and Sunrise. V Gundam, G Gundam, Gundam W, and Gundam X are copyright Sotsu Agency, Sunrise and TV Asahi. Turn A Gundam is copyright Sotsu Agency, Sunrise and Fuji TV.

The Earth Federation

The one constant in the Gundam saga is the sprawling, bureaucratic, corrupt and cowardly Earth Federation. This unified world government organized the space colonization program, and then proceeded to incur the undying enmity of the spacenoids by turning Earth into a private playground for government elites. Acronyms used in the animation imply that it might properly be referred to as the "United Nations" or "Earth Union," but the Sunrise animation studio has since decided that "Earth Federation" is to be the official translation.

Earth Federation Government

This is the central government that rules over Earth and its space territories. The Federation Government's exact structure is unclear, and at various times it appears to be run by both a cabal of cabinet ministers and a bickering mob of demogogic politicians. Our best guess, based on material published in Gundam reference books and oblique references in the animation, is that the Federation Government is organized along the lines of the modern-day United Nations.

According to this model, the highest authority is the Earth Federation Assembly, a congress of elected representatives from the Federation's member nations which meets once or twice a year to debate broad policy matters (as seen in Z Gundam). The assembly is headed by a chairman, who is the top official in the Federation Government. Meanwhile, a permanent security council takes care of day-to-day matters and supervises the Earth Federal Forces. This would presumably be the shadowy cabal we see in Gundam 0083, deciding how to respond to the threat of the Delaz Fleet.

The location of the Federation Government and its various branches changes over time. During Z Gundam and Gundam ZZ, the Federation Assembly's meeting place is in Dakar, Senegal. In UC 0092, the Federal Forces' headquarters are moved to Lhasa, Tibet (a temporary relocation, as it turns out). In the Hathaway's Flash novels, the Federation cabinet meets in Adelaide, Australia. And by the time of V Gundam, the Federation Government has relocated all its operations to the lunar metropolis of Von Braun City.

Earth Federal Forces

The Earth Federal Forces are the military arm of the Earth Federation Government. Like a modern-day military they're divided into several branches, the most often-seen one being the "spacy" or space force. The space force is is sometimes identified in the animation as U.N.T. Spacy, but the Sunrise animation studio has now officially determined this organization's name as being the Earth Federation Space Force.

During the One Year War, the Federal Forces are headquartered in the underground fortress of Jaburo, constructed in a labyrinth of natural caves in South America. With its location a closely-guarded military secret, and protected by its subterranean location, Jaburo proves itself nearly invulnerable to enemy attack. This fortress is also a mighty manufacturing base, whose mobile suit factories and spaceship docks are used to rebuild the ravaged Federal Forces. However, within a few years of the war the Federal Forces have moved their operations elsewhere, and Jaburo has been relegated to a mere supply base.

The Federal Forces' other key stronghold during the One Year War is the asteroid fortress Luna Two. Originally known as Juno, in UC 0045 this 180 kilometer-wide asteroid is moved from the asteroid belt into Earth orbit, where it becomes a mobile mine for colony construction. In UC 0060, with colony construction halted and tensions rising between the Federation and the space colonies, Luna Two is converted into a military base.

In UC 0070, Luna Two is moved to its final location at Lagrange point 3 to support the construction of the Side 7 colony. Since this puts it at maximum distance from the Duchy of Zeon, the moon, and the other space colonies, its strategic significance is pretty slight. However, as the Federal Forces' only surviving space outpost, Luna Two proves a valuable staging area for the Federal Forces during the last days of the war. Though its manufacturing capacity is small compared to that of Jaburo, it also contributes some quantities of warships and mobile suits to the Federal Forces' arsenal. After the war, Luna Two remains in use as a military base until it is raided by the Neo Zeon in UC 0093.

During the last days of the One Year War, the resurgent Federal Forces succeed in capturing the Duchy of Zeon's asteroid fortress of Solomon. Now renamed Konpei Island, the captured fortress serves as a staging area for the Federal Forces' final push into the enemy's homeland. Due to its prime location near Side 1, Konpei Island becomes the primary space headquarters of the Federal Forces after the war... at least until a disastrous attack on the Federal Forces' naval review in UC 0083.

Titans

This elite branch of the Earth Federal Forces is formed in December, UC 0083, to hunt down renegade Zeon forces. Though their supreme commander is General Jamitov Heimann, day-to-day operations are typically left in the hands of Colonel Bosque Ohm. Operating nearly autonomously from the Federal Forces, the Titans quickly broaden their mandate to the ruthless suppression of any and all anti-Federation movements.

This overzealous policing ultimately results in the 30 Bunch Incident of July 31, UC 0085. Here, the Titans respond to a civilian demonstration by pumping poison gas into Side 1's 30th colony, killing its three million inhabitants. Though the true cause of the colony's destruction is kept secret, this atrocity causes the anti-Titans and anti-Federation movement to intensify. By UC 0087, this political struggle has developed into a genuine civil war, and the resolution of the struggle is depicted in the series Z Gundam.

The Titans are based at Side 7, where they have reconstructed the lone colony cylinder left over from the One Year War into the colony Green Noah 1. A second colony has been added, originally named Green Noah 2, but better known as Gryps. Gryps is a sealed cylinder of the Zeon design, divided into two segments. One of these, Gryps 1, contains the Titans' factories and shipbuilding facilities. The other, Gryps 2, is ultimately equipped with engines and a powerful laser cannon, turning it into a mobile colony laser that the Titans can use to attack rebellious space colonies.

In June of UC 0087, the Titans form an alliance with the Republic of Zeon, which transfers the asteroid fortress A Bao A Qu to the Titans' control. The Titans relocate the asteroid to Side 7 and rename it the Gate of Sedan, where it becomes their primary base. The Titans also have a couple of terrestrial outposts, including the Kilimanjaro base atop the eponymous mountain in Tanzania, and a base of some kind in New Guinea. The underground fortress of Jaburo initially serves as a Titans supply depot.

Anti-Earth Union Group (AEUG)

Though the name of this resistance organization positions it as an opponent of the Earth Federation, its essential goal is the elimination of the oppressive Titans and the reform of the Federation Government. Led by Federal Forces Brigadier General Brex Forra, the AEUG's ranks include many other former Federal Forces members, notably a mobile suit pilot by the name of Captain Quattro Bajina. It's sponsored by a number of powerful corporations that oppose the Titans' policies, notably the lunar manufacturing cartel Anaheim Electronics and New Hong Kong's Luo Corporation.

Organized in response to the 30 Bunch Incident, the AEUG doesn't make its first full-fledged sortie against the Titans until March, UC 0087, when the newly-constructed flagship Ahgama carries out a raid on the Titans' stronghold at Side 7. Hijacking several Federal Forces ships docked at the lunar city of Granada, the AEUG assembles a makeshift fleet and begins a running guerilla war, culminating in the destruction of the Titans fleet in February, UC 0088. With its primary foe eliminated and its own forces decimated, the AEUG soon loses its relevance and is effectively absorbed into the Federal Forces.

Though the AEUG can often find support in such hotbeds of political unrest as the lunar cities of Granada and Von Braun and the colonies of Side 2, it has only a few truly safe havens. Its central headquarters is the refugee colony of Sweetwater, while the mobile dock ship La Vie En Rose provides supplies and repairs in the field.

Kalaba

The Kalaba is essentially the terrestrial branch of the AEUG. Its ranks are likewise dominated by Federal Forces veterans, including White Base crew member Hayato Kobayashi and, eventually, his comrade Amuro Ray. The AEUG and Kalaba often lend each other personnel, equipment, and operational support in their mutual struggle against the Titans, and there's no hard and fast separation between the two organizations.

The Kalaba has access to a handful of mothballed military bases and spaceports such as Florida's Kennedy Space Center and the Hickory facility near Southern California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, but once used these are quickly identified by the Titans. Ultimately, the Kalaba's only home is the huge transport plane Audhumla, a five-hundred-meter behemoth captured by the AEUG during their assault on Jaburo.

Londo Bell

By the time the Titans and the first Neo Zeon movement have been defeated, the surviving members of the AEUG have been effectively absorbed into the regular Federal Forces. Many of the core AEUG members are subsequently transferred to a new auxiliary unit called the Londo Bell, organized in March, UC 0090. Like the Titans, this force is charged with investigating anti-Federation activity in the space colonies. Since its membership is made up of people who put their lives on the line to oppose the Titans and their brutal tactics, the Londo Bell force carries out its mission in a far more humane fashion.

The Londo Bell is headquartered at Side 1's neutral colony of Londenion, a rather upscale colony with lots of open space for recreational horseback riding. Its forces consist of the mobile battleship Lar Kairam, commanded by Colonel Bright Noah, and three Crap-class cruisers, carrying a total of some 20 mobile suits.

Manhunter (MHA)

This mysterious division of the Earth Federation Government functions as an immigration police force, enforcing the Federation's strict regulations as to who is allowed to remain on Earth. Though this might seem a limited and unglamorous role, the organization variously known by the acronym MHA, the descriptive Manhunter, or the nickname MaHa is one of the most powerful and dreaded branches of the Federation Government.

Though the Manhunter division is seldom seen in the animation (aside from a brief hippie-thrashing cameo at the beginning of Char's Counterattack), Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino refers to it in his novelizations of Gundam F91 and V Gundam, and casts the Manhunter division as the primary villain in his far-future Gaia Gear saga.