Variable Phase Shift Armor
While the Earth Alliance developed the TP armor to save energy, ZAFT went in a different direction, with a combination of improved batteries and Variable Phase Shift Armor (VPS).
Variable Phase Shift allows the MS to automatically alter the strength, and by extension the power consumption of a Mobile Suit's PS Armor automatically, depending on what combat configuration that MS is in. As a result, the MS's color changes.
The first MS with VPS technology was the ZGMF-X12A Testament originally built by ZAFT, but acquired and fielded by Blue Cosmos under the designation RGX-00. It is highly likely that this is how the Earth Alliance acquired VPS technology, which they incorporated into the GAT-X105E Strike Noir, although it is also possible that they acquired that technology as a result of their brief alliance with Orb in CE 73. A third, less likely theory is that the Earth Alliance was able to obtain VPS technology through analysis of the three mobile suits stolen during the Armory One incident. VPS was later incorporated into all of ZAFT's Second Stage Gundams, including ZGMF-X56S Impulse Gundam. The Impulse had at least eight VPS settings, three of which were used in combat by the first Impulse, piloted by Shinn Asuka.
Orb Union has also improved the PS armor with their own technology, which is similar to VPS, and installed it on MBF-02 Strike Rouge.
Read more about this topic: List Of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Technology, Defensive Technology, Phase Shift Armor
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