Traditional thought experiment: “White Base vs. Yamato”
Reconsidering it today, is there a gap that makes comparison impossible?
by Masaki Ando
Published May 14 by Magmix. See the original article here
There is a classic topic of discussion online: “What would happen if the White Base from Mobile Suit Gundam fought the Yamato from Space Battleship Yamato?” What would the outcome be?
Was this a topic of discussion when Gundam was first broadcast?
Space Battleship Yamato and Mobile Suit Gundam are two of the biggest names in Japanese science-fiction animation, and both continue to attract new fans even today. A classic topic of discussion that brings these two works together is the thought experiment of “White Base vs. Space Battleship Yamato.” This topic is still discussed on social media today, but as far back as the December 1979 issue of Animage, a reader asked, “Which is stronger, Yamato or White Base?” to which Mobile Suit Gundam director Yoshiyuki Tomino replied, “If White Base can avoid the Wave-Motion Gun, it’s obviously stronger.”
The above statement can be seen as a service to Gundam fans, but what would happen if the two actually fought? Let’s take another look.
First, let’s compare their speeds. Is the difference in civilization levels too great?
If we think about it logically, Yamato would win without a doubt. Yamato has a warp function and can travel at 99% of the speed of light even without warping. That’s faster than the bullet speed of the Mega Particle Cannon used in Gundam (which is around 10-33% of the speed of light, depending on the setting), so it’s literally “faster than a bullet.” The technological levels of the two works are simply too different.
Of course, Yamato isn’t always traveling at 99% of the speed of light. I don’t think the Cosmo Tigers, which are carrier-based aircraft, could fight at such speeds. They must be traveling at a much slower speed.
So, how fast is it? Yamato itself has adopted ultra-advanced technologies such as the Wave-Motion Engine brought from the planet Iscandar, but the aircraft probably don’t have wave engines. While the exact speed is unknown, they are said to have the ability to escape Earth’s atmosphere on their own, meaning they can achieve at least the second cosmic velocity (43,000 km/h).
In Mobile Suit Gundam, the world is amazed when the protagonist’s mobile suit, Gundam, can jump and fly. Even a fighter jet would be unable to escape Earth’s atmosphere on its own.
Aside from White Base, there is the question about whether the weapons in Mobile Suit Gundam could damage Yamato. In fact, the attacks by the Earth fleet before the introduction of the wave engine were largely ineffective against the Gamilas warships due to the technological gap.
However, even this “Earth fleet before the introduction of wave engines” actually possesses incredible performance. According to the remake version, the Kongo-class space battleship Kirishima can apparently travel from Mars to Pluto and back in three weeks. In the original work, a battle near Pluto was depicted, so there should be little difference.
On the other hand, the Jupiter transport fleet’s Jupitris in Gundam is said to take two years to travel from Earth to Jupiter, so it is possible to compare their speeds.
Kirishima: Mars to Pluto (approximately 9.3 billion km) in 21 days (442.85 million km per day)
Jupitris: Earth to Jupiter (approximately 886 million km) in 730 days (1,213,698 km per day)
In other words, Kirishima has 353 times the cruising speed of Jupitris. It is reasonable to assume that the aircraft carried by these ships also have similar performance differences.
A 353-fold difference means that, using walking speed (4 km/h) as a reference, the speed is 1,412 km/h (Mach 1.15). In other words, even against the Earth fleet without wave engines before the appearance of Yamato, there would be a civilizational gap akin to soldiers with bows and arrows fighting jet fighters.
Which Gundam unit could potentially retaliate with its attack power?
The most powerful attack in Gundam is the “Colony Drop,” which uses a space colony as a mass bomb. This attack has the power to destroy Earth’s environment and alter its rotational speed, but it still pales in comparison to the Wave-Motion Gun mounted on Yamato.
The Wave Gun has the power to completely shatter a floating continent the size of Australia, and in the series, its users hesitate to use it if the target has a planet behind it. In other words, the Wave Gun, which can erase an entire continent, surpasses the Colony Drop, which wiped out the city of Sydney.
Furthermore, the remake version of Yamato can deploy a Wave Barrier, a shield made of wave energy, so it would likely remain unscathed even if hit by the “Solar Ray,” a laser cannon from an ultra-giant space colony. And since the weapons mounted on White Base do not seem to possess the same power as the Wave Gun or the colony drop, I believe there is no way to inflict damage on Yamato.
By the way, the strongest weapon in the Gundam series is likely the Turn A, which exists “10,000 years after the Universal Century.” The “Moonlight Butterfly” mounted on the Turn A is a terrifying weapon that can “decompose all matter and energy, including beams, missiles, and forests, and destroy civilization” using nanomachines.
Turn A has demonstrated the power to push back the atmospheric escape-capable space battleship Jandarm head-on, so it likely possesses power surpassing that of a Cosmo Tiger II. With such power, it might be able to defeat the “Earth fleet without wave engines.”
If we were to consider a hypothetical showdown with Yamato, enemies like the Zentradi Army from Macross (which is also capable of interstellar travel and has a fleet of approximately 500,000 ships) or the Buff Clan from Legendary Giant God Ideon (which possesses the superweapon “Gand Roa” capable of destroying a Jupiter-class planet) would make for a more fitting challenge.
Interesting. If the individual that did a video talking about “How Gundam changed anime” saw this. I bet they would say that any of the Gundam weapons would be superior.
Again, its an interesting read.
Honestly, I would think a battle between them would be a draw.
In this engagement, White Base has several other elements in its favor which might out Yamato on the back foot.
First is the ship’s compliment of Mobile Suits. Even if we limit ourselves to the “Base Three” Suits, being the titular Gundam, the Guncannon Heavy unit and the Guntank mobile Artillery unit, with support from the two Core Booster fighter jets and the G-Armor flying….tank-jet, for lack of a better description, and excluding the rest of the Federation’s Mobilesuit types.
In the UC canon, the Mobile Suit is a game changer in space combat, with the Principality of Zeon’s early advantage in the field allowing them to make sweeping victories against the Federation, which had no effective counter to them. Warships are particularly vulnerable to Mobilesuits, which are more maneuverable than a fighter and are able to carry a wider variety of weapons.
The Titular Gundam could fly up to Yamato, quite literally physically grab hold of its bridge, and drive its Beam Saber (essentially a giant lightsaber) right through the Bridge windows, or the Wave Motion Gun aperture, or one of the turrets. Meanwhile, the Guncannon and Guntank could target Yamato’s lower hull with their heavy beam cannons and artillery pieces, disabling her engines and destroying the fighter Hanger.
How, you would ask, would they approach Yamato Undetected? The Mobile Suit’s Minovsky Reactors produce what are known as “Minovsky particles” which scramble Radar and guidance systems, which is why guided weapons are not shown to be used in the Gundam universe: they’re basically useless. Yamato would need to deploy crew to every viewport with binoculars to keep visual watch, and even then, Space is big, it’s easy to miss something. as for the Cosmo Tigers, Without Radar they’d need to send them out to search for White Base, so they wouldn’t be able to protect the ship. the Gundam’s armor would also protect it from any weapons short of a full blast from one of Yamato’s main guns, it survived the heat of atmospheric reentry (albeit with help from a shield) and point-blank hits from 120mm tank guns.
of course, this is double-edged for White Base, as they cannot track Yamato with Radar either. the Cosmo Tigers, if able to launch, would likely make short work of the Core Boosters and G-Armor simply by outnumbering them and being more maneuverable. White Base has a compliment of AA guns and close-quarter defenses, but in lesser numbers than Yamato, and in some cases full on open to Hard Vacuum, requiring the crews to wear space suits.
at the end of the day, you’re basically sending a Battle-Carrier up against a Full Carrier with more advanced offensive craft. If they close to gun range, Yamato wins by sheer weight of firepower, but White Base has longer offensive range via its Mobile suits, to say nothing of having weapons Yamato simply isn’t equipped to deal with.