Gladius-class heavy corvette

The Gladius-class heavy corvette is a class of corvette in service with the UNSC Navy, designated with the hull code of FS. Manufactured by TanSec AB, these corvettes excel in interdiction, patrol, and security roles.

Design details
A small, slipspace-capable warship, Gladius-class heavy corvettes are only 243 meters in length with a mass of 36,000 metric tons. The hull of this class are reinforced with Titanium-A armor. The Gladius-class are outfitted with an extensive sensor suite that uses a combination of laser and radar scanners for actively detecting and tracking targets, while monitoring surrounding space for anomalous energy sources.

These corvettes are armed with a single 20DA1C2 MAC, only two M58 Archer missile pods, and a small network of M870 Rampart point defense guns, used for defense against strikecraft and plasma torpedoes. Crewed by a total of fifteen sailors, the Gladius class carries no troops. As these corvettes are substantially outgunned by most warships, they must rely on their small size and low sensor profile to avoid unwinnable battles.

Ships of the line

 * - lead ship
 * (FS-803)

Operational history
During the Human-Covenant War, the Gladius-class heavy corvette was used by UNSC Navy battle groups assigned to the Inner Colonies. As they were substantially outgunned by most Covenant warships, Gladius-class corvettes rarely participated in major fleet engagements. In 2554, a Gladius-class heavy corvette had a deadly encounter with two Kig-Yar s—Mark of Prophecy and Divine Breath—near New Carthage.

Production notes
The Gladius-class was first designed by concept artist Isaac Hannaford for the 2017 book Halo: Warfleet – An Illustrated Guide to the Spacecraft of Halo. One of the early drafts posted by Hannaford features a disarmed vessel named the Carl Sagan; when designing the ship, Hannaford envisioned the corvette platform as a highly-versatile ship that could be repurposed for science and exploration efforts. As such, the "UNSC Carl Sagan" featured in such artwork was envisioned by Hannaford as a disarmed explorative ship, rather than a warship. The ship was later featured in the Halo Encyclopedia (2022 edition) using renders created by Jared Harris from the Sins of the Prophets fan mod (and featured in the infobox on this page), before making its first proper on-screen debut in the Halo: The Television Series episode Emergence.

Trivia
This corvette class was named after the gladius, one Latin word for sword, which served as the primary sword of the Roman army until the Third Century CE.

List of appearances

 * Halo: The Television Series
 * Contact
 * Emergence