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Pilot / Roy Greenwood
Of all Earth's environments, the desert and tropical regions placed the greatest demands on Zeon's mobile suits. Engineers at the California Base set out to develop a Zaku variant designed for these most hostile environments, and this was the result. Starting with the workhorse J type, the developers reduced its weight, increased its power output, and added some supplemental armor. The backpack was replaced by a large radiator unit, while jet engines in the legs and rear skirts made the D type Zaku quite agile.
Field testing of the Zaku Desert Type was performed by the Karakal force. This North African special forces unit, commanded by Major Roy Greenwood, was stationed at Alexandria and operated in Libya and Egypt. The Karakal force was equipped with the early double-antenna type, of which a total of 43 were produced.
Until the introduction of the Dom in the last months of the war, the Zaku Desert Type was the backbone of Zeon's North African and Middle Eastern forces. Among them was the Pink Panther unit, which operated from the Sahara Desert to the Straits of Gibraltar. This North African force was equipped with the more common single-antenna model, which accounted for 71 of the 114 D-type Zakus produced.
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