Okay, let’s do a deep(er) dive on the F91 and give this mobile suit the respect it deserves.
The Rise of SNRI
We can’t talk about the F91 without talking about the people who made it. The Strategic Naval Research Institute (AKA SNRI) was formed in the UC 0093, and was an attempt at revitalizing the Earth Federation’s then-stagnant Research & Development efforts. They did so by consolidating their multiple research labs into a single, focused entity, and then giving them a certain degree of autonomy (and a whole lot more money).
I’ve seen a number of explanations for why SNRI was created. The most common and plausible reason is that the Federation realized the mistake they made in giving Anaheim Electronics a near monopoly on mobile suit technology. Anaheim could (and did) build mecha for anyone who paid them, including the enemies of the Federation. It’s kind of hard to have a technological edge on your opponent when the latest and greatest tech is being sold to both of you at the same time.
It’s even harder still when the company making said technology will give the best stuff to whoever is paying them more, or simply to whatever faction they just so happen to want to support at the given moment. After all, it was Anaheim that secretly bankrolled the AEUG (which was good), and then later Neo Zeon (which was bad). The only way for the Federation to prevent this kind of double dealing and backstabbing was to control the means of R&D.
The first mobile suit to come out of SNRI was the Loto as seen in Gundam Unicorn:
It was a special forces unit that could transform into an Armored Personnel Carrier, and at just 12.2 meters it was significantly smaller than just about any other mobile suit on the battlefield.
Its smaller size was due to a specific design requirement placed upon SNRI, but it was only made possible due to their success in creating a smaller, more compact nuclear reactor. Somebody must have realized that there would be a whole lot of benefit to using this new reactor tech to make all mobile suits smaller (mainly in the form of reduced costs and materials). Thus in UC 0102, in front of a Federation Council, SNRI representatives officially proposed the idea of creating “miniature mobile suits”.
I guess the idea didn’t immediately catch on, since we know from Hathaway’s Flash that mobile suits continued to get bigger and bigger throughout the first decade of the UC 0100’s. However, Anaheim Electronics did take their own early stab at the concept, and by UC 0109 they released the Heavygun.
At a little under 16 meters, it’s not quite as miniature as some of the mobile suits from the One Year War (which averaged between 17 and 18 meters in height). It also reused a lot of the same weapons and components as the (non miniature) Jegan. In fact, they even look fairly similar:
In a way, the Heavygun was a proof of concept that didn’t do a great job of proving the concept. SNRI thought they could do even better, and so they began the Formula Project. I won’t go into too much detail here (as there is a lot we could cover), but suffice to say that the Formula Project gave birth to a whole load of prototype miniature mobile suits (and a handful of mass production units), including the F91.
On average, SNRI’s output was far superior that anything coming out of Anaheim, but this did not result in the kind of success you might expect. Various unexpected conflicts led to the destruction of many of their prototypes, most notably the F90. On top of that, Anaheim eventually stole a whole bunch of SNRI’s research, which they combined with their vast resources and manufacturing capability to regain their edge.
At this point, the story gets fuzzy. My research implies that over time, SNRI became more and more independent from the Federation, to the point where they had to worry about sales and profits to stay afloat. By the events of Crossbone Gundam, they were still around, but apparently strapped for cash. After that, the records aren’t clear as to their ultimate fate. Multiple sources claim that during the events of Victory Gundam, the SNRI facilities at Side 2 came under the control of the Zanscare Empire and turned into BESPA. However, it is unclear if they joined them willingly.
Additionally, I’ve seen conflicting claims as to whether elements of SNRI were involved with the League Militaire. This interesting Youtube video provides some evidence that a lot of the technologies found in the Victory Gundam and Victory Two originated in older SNRI prototypes, and that some of the League’s engineers were themselves ex-SNRI. On the other hand, the Gundam Wiki suggests that the League was actually supported by Anaheim Electronics, who simply repurposed a whole lot of older SNRI tech.
Whatever the truth may be, there is no little doubt in my mind that SNRI had the greatest influence on mobile suit technology in the UC 0100’s. Between compact reactors (and thus the dawn of miniature mobile suits), beam shields, hardpoint equipment systems, and major advances in beam weaponry, SNRI made mobile suits smaller, faster, more efficient, more configurable, and much more lethal.
In the Real World ...
Legend has it that there was a real world explanation for the in-universe creation of mini mobile suits, namely the high cost of petroleum in the early 90's. Smaller mecha would mean smaller model kits, which in turn would use less plastic.Ultimately, legend also tells us that this plan didn't really pan out as well as the execs at Bandai anticipated. I guess nobody told mecha artists in the early 90's to simplify their mobile suit designs, so they ended up with tinier mobile suits with even tinier details (or in the case of the Victory Gundam, a complicated transformation feature). Of course, all of this needed to be replicated in Gunpla, and apparently these kits were not very good, and thus didn't sell very well.
That, or they didn't sell because of their size alone. I've heard the story told both ways, so who knows where the truth lies.
This is already getting pretty long, so let’s pause here, and we’ll get to talking about the F91 in the next post.