Strike fighter

Marcus Lehto: "I think it was the Strike Fighter, right? It was like a defensive fighter for the... the... uh..."

Robert McLees: "Earth Space."

Marcus Lehto: "Well, it just didn't fit into our game play, either. We didn't have any kind of purpose for this thing"

Shi Kai Wang: "Unless it's cinematics."

Robert McLees: "Yeah it'd be a cinematic-only thing, and there wasn't enough time to add it in."

The UNSC Stike Fighter was planned to be used as a heavy fighter aircraft for the player to use in the opening stages of the game. Not much is known about this vehicle, except a brief description and concept art found on the Collector's Edition DVD.

Deleted Material
When developing Halo 2, Bungie faced numerous delays for various technical reasons. As such many aspects of the story such as vehicles, game play/design, and story elements did not make it into the final version of Halo 2. Many of the elements have been confirmed by such things as videos and commentary on the Limited Edition special DVD.

It may be that the early concept of the Strike Fighter was the SkyHawk mentioned in Halo: The Fall of Reach.