GA-TL1 Longsword

Longsword Interceptor

"...The ship's inventory shows one Longsword fighter still docked in Launch Bay 7. If we move now, we can make it!"

- Cortana to John-117 during their escape from Installation 04

The C709 Longsword-Class Interceptor is the main UNSC single ship, and a mainstay starfighter, filling a variety of roles simultaneously.

Role
Repeatedly described as a space fighter or interceptor, intended to engage enemy fighters, dropships, and boarding craft in route to their capital-ships, Longswords have also been seen in a variety of roles, making for an extremely versatile craft. It is relatively inexpensive to produce. They are capable of holding their own even against technologically superior fighters used by the Covenant, using missiles and cannons to deal tremendous firepower (without having much in the way of defenses) and with a skilled pilot, may even be superior to the Covenant fighters, and escorting UNSC dropships as they deliver their passengers/various cargoes to planet surfaces or larger ships. They are also used in attack runs against Covenant capital ships, delivering high-yield missiles, Shiva nuclear warheads , or even free-floating Moray space mines, to or near their targets. Sometimes, they are used as bait, such as the case with Captain Wallace. They can also be used in planetary environments by functioning as fighter-bombers, destroying ground targets from the air, and escorting larger capital ships such as Frigates, Halcyon-class Cruisers, or Marathon-class Cruisers in their own assaults.

Structure
In the first game, Halo: Combat Evolved, the inside of the ship presents a small corridor leading to the rear, stairs, and a higher corridor to the cockpit. In the two corridors, there are several equipment lockers, along with two secondary crew stations. The cockpit consists of two pilot chairs and two more auxiliary crew stations. With a known total crew complement of four, along with the equipment and weapon lockers, the ship presents itself as less of a fighter-bomber and more of a dedicated bomber and close support craft.

If a life-sized construction of the Longsword were to be produced, its wingspan would be five meters longer than a Boeing 747, while its fuselage would be six meters shorter, making Longswords considerably larger than today's fighter aircraft, closer in size to bombers, such as the similar B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber.

The cockpit design stayed the same between Halo and Halo 2 but changed in Halo 3. Previously, the cockpit had four windows (two on each side, but none in the front) and a view screen. In Halo 3, the Longsword has windows wrapping around the cockpit like the traditional aircraft.

Many changes occurred from Halo 2 to Halo 3 in the aesthetics of the ship. The first version in Halo: CE and Halo 2 had the diamond-shaped intakes which were removed for the Halo 3 version, so it can be proposed that the ship in Halo 3 is a different version of the Longsword. It may be noted, however, that all of the Longswords seen in Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 are used in space combat, while those seen in Halo 3 are primarily used in an atmospheric fighter-bomber role.

Propulsion
There are two main engines discernible on a Longsword fighter. Their precise nature is not known, but they are able to function in space and they are strong enough to reach Earth's and Installation 04's escape velocity. The drive system cannot be purely chemical rocketry, as putting even a modest mass into orbit requires hundreds of tons of fuel. Likely, it is nuclear-powered, and the electrical energy or heat generated is used to power an electric drive or to heat regular fuel into a much higher impulse. There are multiple RCS points for maneuvering.

While escaping from Alpha Halo, the Master Chief's Longsword displayed a vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) capability, accelerating extremely quickly to atmospheric escape velocity, but nearly overheated the engines. Although this sudden overheat may be related to the problem that caused the Longsword to end up as being docked for maintenance and repair in the first place.

Weapons
The Longsword's main weapons are 110mm rotary cannons, as well as 120mm ventral guns, for dog-fighting Seraph fighters in space and strafing ground targets when the need arises. This versatile fighter can be armed with an assortment of secondary weapons including ASGM-10 Missiles, bombs, Moray Space Mines, Scorpion Missiles, and can even heft a single Shiva Nuclear Warhead. The Longsword is usually deployed against Seraph fighters in space combat and Covenant artillery in planetary combat. It also may escort Pelicans as they head for the surface of a planet. It can also be remote piloted, carrying a single Shiva Nuclear Warhead, as was the case when Lieutenant Keyes destroyed a Covenant Supercruiser.

Trivia

 * The Chief later captures a Covenant flagship by using a Longsword to get on board with the distraction of an unmanned Pelican carrying mines that took down the ship's Seraphs. Cortana took down the ship's shields and weapons, allowing the Longsword to land on board.
 * The Longsword is one of the few UNSC vehicles that are not named or modeled after animals (Warthog, Hornet, etc.)
 * Using saved films in Halo 3, Halo fans can get pictures of the Longsword in the levels "The Ark" (when the Longsword flies by and then crashes when the Master Chief finds the crashed Pelican and a surviving group of Marines) and in the level "The Storm" (when the Longsword is shot down by the Covenant Anti-Air gun). Although on The Storm, you won't be able to get a picture of the crash, since the Longsword disappears when it leaves the player's view.
 * The Longsword fighter underwent many design iterations, as seen in The Art of Halo.
 * It is disputed whether the Longsword is black or gray, as it looks gray in the final level of Halo: Combat Evolved (The Maw), but when it is seen in space (and in Halo 3), it looks darker. This may be due to lighting or graphical enhancement.
 * Longswords appear on The Storm and The Ark fighting space and in-atmosphere battles against Covenant fighters, along with fighting above the Ark.
 * In Halo: First Strike, four Longswords are used to cover a single Pelican. This, however, seems impractical due to how large the Longsword is compared to the Pelican. This is probably due to the importance of the Pelican's cargo.
 * The Longsword is more than likely the successor of the Shortsword. However, this entered service around eight years before the events of Halo Wars, when the Shortsword bomber was still in service, at least on the UNSC Spirit of Fire. As such, it is possible that they are two separate classes, or the Longsword was designed to supplement the Shortsword, which was designed as only a bomber aircraft.
 * Longswords may or may not have working gravity. At the end of Halo: Combat Evolved, Spartan-117 got up out of his seat and walked over to the side screen to witness the destruction of Installation 04. However, in Halo: First Strike, it is said that the Spartan "floats" to the weapons locker at the back of the Longsword, and that when he picks up the remaining Marines, they too float about. However, this might be because the Longsword (or its artificial gravity) was powered down at the time.
 * It is optional to have a Shiva nuclear missile aboard, although in Halo: First Strike, the Master Chief states, "We might get lucky if we find a couple of those Shiva nuclear-tipped missiles lying around.", which suggests it may be able to carry more than one missile.
 * In Theater on the level The Ark, if you move to the scene of the crash before it happens, the Longsword is already there. The version that you see flying past actually disappears, as the crash would have been too hard to produce for a scripted animation.

Known Longswords

 * 7-89
 * Knife 26

Internal Links

 * Seraph - The Covenant equivalent of the Longsword
 * SkyHawk - the UNSC's dedicated atmospheric strike fighter.
 * Tarasque-class heavy fighter - presumably a similar Covenant fighter.