Technology & Combat Characteristics
The RTX-440 is a modification of the anti-MS tank RTX-44. The machine cannons equipped on left manipulator are an improved 2-tube model which has longer range than the older 4-tube model on the original Guntank. In addition to the bop gun and 220mm cannon, the RTX-440 can be armed with numerous optional weapons including Multi Launch Rocket System (MLRS), rocket launchers, heavy mines and a flamethrower.
The RTX-440 have a very limited degree of flexibility of its torso – unlike the fixed torso of its predecessor, the Guntank – but rigid enough to make it hard to shoot a moving target with its main cannon. In addition, the RTX-440 has a crude transformation mechanism known as "Asssault Gun Mode" that allows it to deploy the secondary caterpillar treads and "crouch" down in similar fashion to a conventional tank. This mode allows the RTX-440 to approach its target with greater speed.
History
Development of the RTX-440 Ground Assault Type Guntank was one of the many mobile suit projects that the Earth Federation started during the One Year War. Like all of the projects it was descended from the Federation's Project V, specifically from the data of the RX-75 Guntank. However the RTX-440 development project was terminated after Clyde Bettany, the Federation technical officer of the project and lover of the project subordinate Aline Nazon, defected to Zeon with information regarding the RTX-440 Guntank.
Despite its data being in the hands of the Zeon, three RTX-440 Guntanks had been produced before the project was cancelled. They were fielded by the Federation Forces to participate in Operation Odessa in a desperate attempt to break through Zeon defense. The pilots were three convicts who had been promised amnesty from their crimes, including Aline Nazon who technically hadn't committed any crimes except for being the lover to a traitor.
The Guntanks were assigned as vanguard units during Operation Odessa to penetrate enemy lines and to destroy a battleship that was causing severe losses to the newly reorganized 44th Independent Brigade Composite. The Guntank Crews managed to succeed in their mission, at the cost of two of the machines and their pilots. The surviving Guntank, piloted by Aline Nazon who spotted a second Dobday. She was ordered by Maj. Michael Colmatta not to attack it. However, she had a premonition which told her that Clyde Bettany was on the ship. Recklessly she charges the Guntank into enemy lines, destroying several enemy mobile suits in the process. Due of her recklessness, the Guntank was ruined by the time it reached the Dobday. In a last ditch effort to exact revenge, she activated the Guntank's Emergency Destruction System. The resulting explosion destroyed both the Guntank and the Dobday.
