Charon-class light frigate

The Charon-class light frigate is a type of escort ship in service with the UNSC Navy. Ships of this class are used primarily in fleet escort duties and planetary defense. The class is named after either Charon, a minor god who ferried the souls of the dead to the underworld in Greek mythology, or after a natural satellite of Pluto.

Hull and complement
At 490 meters in length, the Charon is a rather small vessel. Owing to its enlarged hangar bay, the Charon-class frigate is better suited to landing forces groundside than other frigate classes. The ship's sublight power plant is a Naoto Technologies: V4/L deuterium fusion reactor. Translight power is provided by a Series IV CODEN Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine. The Charon has a maximum crew and complement of 782. It can carry several Pelican dropships as well as around two dozen ground and air vehicles.

Armament
The Charon-class frigate's primary armament is a Mark II, Light Coil – 83B6R3 Magnetic Accelerator Cannon. It also boasts fifty M58 Archer missile pods, each of which carries thirty missiles. Two M870 Rampart point defense turrets are mounted on the port and starboard hangar bays, one on the dorsal surface and one below; each emplacement mounts two 50mm guns. Rather than the s carried by most UNSC warships, the Charon sports three M4093 Hyperion silos.

Ships of the line

 * (FFG-307)
 * CMA Arabia
 * (FFG-127)
 * (FFG-201)
 * Iliad (Captured and used by the Eridanus Secundus Insurrectionists)
 * CMA Vostok
 * Algolis-based frigate
 * Algolis-based frigate

Trivia

 * The Charon class' distinctive, oversized cargo bay resembles that of the eponymous Firefly class from the television series Firefly.
 * The Forward Unto Dawn was drastically redesigned in Halo 4, including a restructured hull and the addition of several point defense guns. Though 343 Industries writer Jeff Easterling has clarified that the Charon ' s original design is canon, the redesign served as the basis of the.

List of appearances

 * Halo: First Strike (2010)
 * Halo 3
 * Halo Wars: Genesis
 * Halo: Helljumper
 * Halo 3: ODST
 * Halo Legends
 * Origins
 * Prototype
 * Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn
 * Halo 4
 * Halo: Escalation