The appearance of the Earth Federation Forces' beam weapon-carrying mobile suit prototypes in September UC 0079 forced the Principality of Zeon to make some serious changes in its mobile suit development programs. One of these programs was the MS-11 Act Zaku, an intended replacement for the aging space combat MS-06F Zaku II. As the MS-11 project was cancelled and reorganized into development for the MS-14 Gelgoog, Zeon needed a temporary improvement in its spaceborne mobile suit forces until the Gelgoog could begin production. The result was the MS-06R-2 Zaku II R-2, based on the MS-06R-2P. An improvement over the MS-06R-1A, the R-2 featured lighter construction materials, better armored legs, and extra propellant storage. However, it did incorporate the R-1A's less-powerful reactor, and thus could not use beam weapons. Only four units were constructed, but soon the design lost out to Zimmad Company's space combat revision mobile suit, the MS-09R Rick Dom. Three units were placed into combat, assigned to ace pilots Johnny Ridden, Gabby Hazard and Robert Gilliam, with the fourth unit assigned to the lunar Granada base for continued testing.
