Macross Valkyries are armed with mini-missiles, small lasers, and chainguns firing depleted uranium bullets. Except for the lasers, all their weapons could be built with today's technology. Their armor isn't much better than that of today's F-series fighters either.
Gundam Mobile Suits--even those that aren't Gundams--carry particle beam cannons as powerful as those mounted by warships of their universes, and are armored similarly--it's only because offense and defense technology have kept pace with each other that they look just as flimsy. A PBC blast that would put a hole in Gundanium/Gundarium armor--and torch the MS's reactor if you were lucky--would melt a Valk like a wax candle.
(Mind you, I prefer Macross over Gundam myself. I'm just saying that was a bad comparison.)
At the higher end of the scale, Macross dominates--the most powerful beam rifle from Gundam for which we have a megawattage rating, the ZZ-Gundam's Hyper Mega Cannon, is ~75 mw; I estimate the Macross's Reaction Cannon at 10 gigawatts of anime firepower (which may or may not have any relation to the real world, but sometimes seems internally consistent).
--Sam Ashley
"Beware the other head of science!"
Gundam Mobile Suits--even those that aren't Gundams--carry particle beam cannons as powerful as those mounted by warships of their universes, and are armored similarly--it's only because offense and defense technology have kept pace with each other that they look just as flimsy. A PBC blast that would put a hole in Gundanium/Gundarium armor--and torch the MS's reactor if you were lucky--would melt a Valk like a wax candle.
(Mind you, I prefer Macross over Gundam myself. I'm just saying that was a bad comparison.)
At the higher end of the scale, Macross dominates--the most powerful beam rifle from Gundam for which we have a megawattage rating, the ZZ-Gundam's Hyper Mega Cannon, is ~75 mw; I estimate the Macross's Reaction Cannon at 10 gigawatts of anime firepower (which may or may not have any relation to the real world, but sometimes seems internally consistent).
--Sam Ashley
"Beware the other head of science!"