series introduced Minovsky particle beam weaponry to mobile suits, developing and deploying the first successful beam rifle and beam saber. These would form the primary component of mobile suit weaponry for at least the next hundred and fifty years. The core block system was also introduced in the RX-78, as well as the RX-75 Guntank and RX-77 Guncannon. This system allowed the pilot to escape the destruction of his mobile suit in a functional aerospace fighter, as well as housing a learning computer that can collect and analyze performance data from the suit's combat sorties and self-adapt for improvement. This however had to be dropped from subsequent mass-production units due to cost issues. However, it was reused on occasion (most notably in the Anaheim Electronics MSZ-010 ZZ Gundam during the First Neo Zeon War), and later resurrected in UC 0153 by the League Militaire on the LM312V04 Victory Gundam. After the end of the One Year War, the Federation opened up a black op mobile suit development program, the Gundam Development Project, in order to develop mobile suits to fill roles that had appeared in analysis of combat operations from the One Year War. After the events of Gundam 0083, all details of the Gundam Development Project were erased from the official records. The RX-78 line was finally superseded in UC 0087 by the RX-178 Gundam Mk-II, developed by the Titans counterinsurgency taskforce. Notable variations RX-78NT-1 Gundam NT-1 "Alex" Primary Mobile Suit featured in the 1989 OVA Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, designed by Yutaka Izubuchi. The first direct variant of the RX-78 to be animated, it helped pave the way for the appearance of other variants, such as those from Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, as pivotal elements of the plot. In War in the Pocket, the Alex was developed to replace the RX-78-2 and optimized for the increased reaction time of Newtypes, though its test pilot Christina MacKenzie was not a Newtype herself. With its panoramic cockpit, the Alex serves as a retconned technological link between the original series and Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. Offensively, the Alex sports large multi-barreled cannons concealed beneath the blue pods on either arm in addition to a pair of small Vulcan guns mounted on the head and the ubiquitous backpack-stored beam sabers. It was also to be equipped with a beam rifle and shield, but they were not