>>23571769
ok, I need you to look at this https://youtu.be/z0hp67a7iwY?si=nM2uUnHKSVue-jVH

Hashmal, a machine from 300 years ago, during the peak of technological advancement era, before the Calamity War, just wakes up and punches through, say, a kilometer of Martian soil with zero effort.

To vaporize a one-kilometer column of Martian regolith, you’d need around 1011~1014 joules, equivalent to tens to tens of thousands of tons of TNT. And at the 0:55 mark of the same video, a Shiden jumps right in front of the beam, taking it straight to the torso, not even on the shield, and the machine barely takes any damage.

Beam weapons in IBO are destructive, but keep in mind, this is a universe where Mars has been fully terraformed. That’s a feat no other Gundam series has achieved. It means that before the Calamity War, humanity had the technology and energy output to make Mars breathable, capable of supporting crops, and even with Earth-like gravity, since no one suffers bone or heart problems when they visit Earth. That alone suggests their technological level far surpasses UC or even 00. It’s safe to say that powerful beam weapons once existed everywhere in the IBO.

As for Nanolaminate Armor, it isn’t just anti-beam, it’s anti-everything. It’s so effective that the Dainsleif was designed around reverse psychology, the Nanolaminate Armor is so reliable that charging head-on into gunfire is a valid tactic (pic rel from Mobile Suit Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans - Mechanics & World 2). The Dainsleif exploited that mindset to destroy Mobile Armors, Mobile Suits, and even Gundam Frames alike. That’s how good the armor is.

So, back to the original point, yes, they tried using beam weapons, but Nanolaminate Armor was simply too good. It rendered all beam weaponry completely obsolete.