Spartan Operations
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
| Spartan Operations | |
|---|---|
 The logo of Spartan Operations | |
|
Formed: |
|
|
Affiliation: |
|
|
Branch: |
|
|
Type: |
Independent branch |
|
Role: |
|
|
Size: |
|
|
Engagements: |
|
|
Commanders: |
|
- "Spartans, like Navy, or Army, or Marines, are UNSC. Spartans are humanity's first line of defense, against threats from within and without. Spartans are what will see us through the darkness ahead and into the dawn beyond."
- — Commander Musa Ghanem, to a board of UNSC Navy officers[6]
Spartan Operations,[4][7] also referred to as the Spartan branch[8][9] or simply the Spartans,[10][11][12] is the fifth and newest branch of the United Nations Space Command's Armed Forces, organized under both UNSC Naval Command and the Unified Ground Command. The branch is responsible for the command of special operations undertaken by all Spartan-IVs, with many Spartan-IIIs integrated into their ranks. However, the surviving Spartan-IIs and select Spartan-IIIs remain in the UNSC Navy branch's Special Forces. Although Spartan Operations has autonomy from the other four branches of the Armed Forces,[13] the Spartans closely collaborate with the UNSC Navy and share assets with the Marine Corps and Army.[14] Additionally, they are excluded from FLEETCOM and Unified Ground Command under UNSC DIR 1100.D9 and 6899.01, respectively.[15]
The branch was established in 2553, shortly after the end of the apocalyptic Human-Covenant War, a time which saw a dramatic increase in the numbers of Spartan supersoldiers upon the activation of the SPARTAN-IV program.[10] The operations conducted by these Spartans are collectively referred to as the Spartan Ops program.[16]
Roles and operations[edit]
Spartan Operations was created to serve as the most elite infantry force used by the United Nations Space Command,[13] serving as a joint special operations branch that often undertakes missions involving unconventional warfare. The primary mission of the branch is to secure peace throughout human space using elite soldiers to quell threats and other hostile factors.[17] With the end of the Human-Covenant War, Spartan Operations played a large role in combating the hostile Covenant remnants to protect the colonies and citizens of the Unified Earth Government, while also aiding other allied factions, such as the Swords of Sanghelios.[18] In addition, the Spartan branch also combated insurrectionist factions with the continuing Insurrection, most notably the United Rebel Front and New Colonial Alliance.[19]
With the branch's activation in 2553, some of the UNSC's most prominent and effective personnel have been assigned to specialized combat and intelligence gathering teams, such as Fireteam Osiris. These teams are composed of highly proficient operators with varied skills to provide them with significant flexibility in carrying out their assigned missions. Such teams carry out challenging operations directly under the UNSC High Command and Security Council.[20]
History[edit]
Origins and conception[edit]
- "Realistically, the pervasiveness of the modern soldier will never be on the decline, at least not in our time. But ubiquity and numbers don't always guarantee operational success, something Naval Intelligence recognized long ago. Rather than drown out our enemies in an avalanche of bodies, we saw the value intrinsic in the specialization and refinement of a very select number of soldiers—a remarkably select number, actually. This is how the Spartan branch came to be."
- — Codename: SURGEON[21]
The production of large numbers of Spartan supersoldiers with relative ease did not become possible in practice for the United Nations Space Command until the end of the Human-Covenant War. Despite this, optimistic projections in 2531 suggested that one hundred thousand Spartans might be created in the following thirty years.[22] Between 2531 and 2552, nearly one thousand Spartans were trained, augmented, and graduated as part of the SPARTAN-III program, masterminded by Army veteran and Office of Naval Intelligence confidant Colonel James Ackerson.[23]
The SPARTAN-IV program entered development on September 20, 2552,[24] unknown to Ackerson.[13] The project was conceived by Commander Musa Ghanem, a former Spartan-II crippled by the augmentation process given an opportunity to relaunch the SPARTAN program. Despite believing that the methodology of the SPARTAN-II program was highly unethical, Musa was also adamant that the Spartans were critical for humanity's survival and would continue to be so in the following years.[1] Due to ethical factors, as well as advancements in technology now allowed the augmentation of adult subjects without the major risks which necessitated the use of children in the preceding programs, it was decided that future Spartans would be consenting adults, all of whom handpicked for their exceptional service during the war, mainly from special operations units from across the UNSC.