UNSC Army Rangers

The UNSC Army Rangers are an elite cadre of infantry among the UNSC Army serving as long-range scouts.

Roles and operations
UNSC Army Rangers traditionally serve as long-range scouts, deploying sniper teams to observe the enemy and place sensors behind enemy lines to provide intelligence to allied forces, overall aiding the efforts of the United Nations Space Command. Rangers also specialize in long-term counterinsurgency operations and organizing resistance groups on occupied worlds, a role that became their primary duty during the Human-Covenant War.

The Rangers work closely with Spartan Operations to defend human settlements from local criminal elements, pirate or mercenary raiders, and other threats.

History
During the Human-Covenant War, the Rangers were tasked with supporting resistance groups on Covenant-occupied colonies. However, this task was made difficult by the Covenant's ruthless and indiscriminate attacks, particularly due to the Covenant's reluctance to take and hold ground when it could simply glass targets from orbit. Nevertheless, Ranger sniper and guerrilla teams ensured Covenant armies were dealt heavy casualties during their occupation.

Following the Covenant War, the Rangers have transitioned back to their traditional duties, serving to aid the broader efforts of the United Nations Space Command. In the conflicts following the war, Rangers continue to defend colonies from raiders and criminal elements.

Behind the scenes
UNSC Army Rangers are likely based on United States Army Rangers, airborne special operations troops trained for direct action, national and international emergency crisis response, airfield seizure, airborne and air assault operations, special reconnaissance, intelligence and counter intelligence, combat search and rescue, personnel recovery and hostage rescue, joint special operations, and counter terrorism. It is likely that UNSC Rangers are also airborne units.

Concept art of UNSC Army Rangers was created for Halo: Reach by Isaac Hannaford, though Rangers never explicitly appear in the game.

In Halo: Official Spartan Field Manual, an image (shown below) from the Halo: Reach level Tip of the Spear is used to depict Army Rangers on their associated page. It is unclear if this means that the Army personnel encountered in the aforementioned mission are in fact Ranger personnel.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Official Spartan Field Manual