A Space Battleship has to have Space Fighters – We Break Down ‘Space Battleship Yamato’s ‘Cosmo Zero’
The Type-0 Space Carrier-based Fighter, better known as the Cosmo Zero, is a workhorse of the Earth Federation Cosmo Navy.
While the Space Battleship Yamato may have been the backbone of the effort that saved the Earth from attack by the Garmillas, the Yamato was aided by the nimble flight and surprisingly heavy armament of its space superiority fighters, better known as Cosmo Zeroes.
These spacefighters were capable of fighting in atmosphere and in the vacuum of space. And each was armed with a devastating arsenal capable of defeating even the advanced armor of the Garmillas. Though the ship was originally intended for mass production, only nine Cosmos Zeroes were made at the time the Yamato departed Earth in 2199.
But these nine ships were more than capable of fending off the dangers that awaited them in the depths of space.
Cosmo Zero – Design and Capabilities
As transatmospheric spacefighter craft, the Cosmo Zero was built with resilience in mind. A single Cosmo Zero was intended to engage both air and ground targets with a variety of weapons, and to outmaneuver enemy fighter craft at speed.
This second feature came, in large part, due to its design. The outer wing sections of a Cosmo Zero were constructed at a downward angle, while separate wing pods housed vernier thrusters and a reaction control system making it capable of delicate landing and positioning. Powering all of this was the Axial Flow Cosmo Engine, specifically the Model 52, which was capable of handling the ship’s considerable firepower as well as two pylon high mobility units—add-on units that would increase the maneuverability of each fighter.
The Cosmo Zero carried powerful weapons, including 4 machine guns as well as an autocannon. Despite the name, these were energy weapons, which fired a mixture of laser and particle beams. Alongside the particle weaponry, a Cosmo Zero could be equipped with up to 12 different missiles, including air-to-ground, air-to-air, and anti-ship missiles.
Cosmo Zero – A Fateful Journey
First developed by the Far East District Aerospace Battlegroup and the United Nations Cosmo Navy, the Cosmo Zero was originally intended as a fighter for mass production to serve as the bulwark in the Cosmo Navy. The Type-0 designation came from the fact that, as of 2199, the project was still in the prototype phase.
When the Space Battleship Yamato was forced to launch in 2199, it had only nine of the craft as its complement of fighters. These were put to the test in the Great Garmillas War, where the Yamato squadron led a mission to discover the Pluto Frontline Base, as well as to defend the Yamato from a space air raid during the battle of the Rainbow Star Cluster.
Despite the craft’s harrowing efforts, the UNCN never adopted this model for mass production. After the Great Garmillas War ended, the UNCN had moved on to the Cosmo Falcon and eventually, the Cosmo Tiger II in place of the Cosmo Zero.
But in spite of this, the Cosmo Zero remains an important chapter in the Earth Federation’s history among the stars.
