Capital ship

"Our fighters are mopping up the last of their recon picket now, nothing serious. But I've isolated approach signatures from multiple CCS-class battle groups, make it three capital ships per group. And in about 90 seconds they'll be all over us."

- Cortana

Capital ships are a classification of spacecraft, generally encompassing the most important and largest warships with the heaviest firepower and armor. There are usually no formal criteria for the classification, other than the fact that these ships tend to be heavily armed and armored. A capital ship is generally a leading or primary ship in a fleet, battle group, or strike force. Among the UNSC and the Covenant capital ships primarily include battleships, carriers and heavy cruisers.

Covenant

 * Carrier
 * Cruiser
 * Battleship
 * Cruiser
 * Battleship
 * Battleship
 * Battleship
 * Battleship
 * Battleship
 * Battleship

Sangheili

 * Carrier
 * Brigantine

United Nations Space Command

 * Multirole support vessel
 * Phoenix-class support vessel
 * Carrier
 * Cruiser
 * Battleship
 * Cruiser
 * Battleship
 * Cruiser
 * Battleship
 * Battleship
 * Battleship
 * Battleship

Prehistoric human

 * Cruiser
 * Prime cruiser
 * Mobile battlestation
 * Tuned platform

Forerunner

 * Planet-breaker
 * Dreadnought
 * Keyship
 * Keyship