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UNSC starships were Human starships operated by the United Nations Space Command. The UNSC operated these starships through several different branches.

Insurrection
The time of the Insurrection saw a number of class additions and developments to the UNSC's fleet. In 2493, the entered service. Though serious cost problems over five years cast doubt in the class' future. At some point in the Insurrection, a new carrier, the, was built to help with ground operations. One of the last known class additions during the Insurrection was the. In 2510, the class first entered service.

CAA and CMA Absorption
In 2525, the UNSC would strip away the CMA's naval resources and give them to NAVCOM. As well, the UNSC would begin to take over the Colonial Administration Authority in the midst of the Human-Covenant war. With these additions, the UNSC received several different types of ships. This included the CAA's  and the  from the CMA. Both of which would be brought back to service or continued service such as with the and the.

Final year of the war
By the final year of the war, a majority of the UNSC's ground forces had been consolidated at Reach and at Earth. For many colonies, it was only the ships of the navy that were seen and gave aid to those cut-off from the rest of the UNSC. Though in many instances, the Navy couldn't afford the loss of ships and personnel and instead chose to leave these colonies to their own devices including destruction by the Covenant. No appreciable differences could be seen in expeditionary and defensive fleets as the UNSC lost the ability to conduct offensive naval operations. Navy AIs by this point were still assigning ships to squadrons, though at that point they were administrative groupings that had lost meaning over the course of the war. As well, numerous fleets only existed on paper, having been destroyed in lost sectors years prior.

With 152 ships present at the of Battle of Reach, a large number of these ships were destroyed. This included many capital ships such as the, the flagship of the Epsilon Eridani Fleet and pride of the Navy.

Starting September 5, 2552 all remaining UNSC starships and their fleets were consolidated under a single command grouping under the UNSC Home Fleet. By the end of the war, the plethora of UNSC starships had been reduced to only a few hundred.

Post-war
Following the Human-Covenant war, the surviving UNSC starships were brought back to Sol to be repaired, refitted and counted.

A variety of starship classes and several ship improvements that were created during the war finally became commonplace. The, the and the  were all added to the fleet. All three have shielding, an unprecedented addition to UNSC ships.

As part of ongoing offenses, UNSC Strident-class frigates and s were being deployed to the Outer Colonies to route out Covenant remnant occupiers.

Conflict with the Created
During Cortana's Reclamation, many UNSC starships were disabled by Guardian Custodes under the control of the Created. Some ships, were ripped out of Slipstream Space with the activation of the Guardians, like the. Shipboard AIs from numerous starships also defected to the Created.

Management
In the UNSC, ships can also be operated by different departments and branches. Warships like the were often operated by the UNSC Navy. UNSC Navy ships were deployed by UNSC Fleet Command. In the case of the, it was operated by the Incident Response and Investigation division of the UNSC.

Smaller craft were often operated by other branches or were overlapped with another branch. The F-41 Exoatmospheric Multirole Strike Fighter, for example, was most often operated by the UNSC Air Force. The UNSC Department of Commercial Shipping also operated a number of Freighters.

Tactical Groupings
UNSC ships were organized into fleets; specifically numbered expeditionary fleets and named defensive fleets. Further down, ships were arranged into battle groups. As well, squadrons were a type of tactical grouping for support ships early in the Covenant War, but by the end of the war were relegated to administrative groupings.

Often, naval groupings had a flagship

Identification
There were a few known ways of identifying UNSC ships. There was the Hull classification symbol, which gives each ship a letter classification and a number. There was the ship emblem, which was a unique image that was special to each ship.

Some warships also used the UNSC REG system, which was also a special serial number. There was also the UNc system.

The UNSC Department of Commercial Shipping operated its own identification codes for freighters that were primarily used in COM transmissions.

Personnel
It is expected of all navy ship personnel to participate in working parties. The working parties help with routine maintenance and replenishment.

Leadership
The leader of a UNSC starship, like other human starships, is referred to as a Captain regardless of actual rank. The actual military rank of the leader is dependent on the size of the ship. Those of the rank Lieutenant often are in charge of small support vessels, Commanders are in charge of small warships, and Captains are in charge of line warships.

UNSC Starships were often given a Ship Director, an AI who could manage much of the ship's tasks with the Captain's authority. Generally, these AI were "Smart".

Traditions
Navy personnel UNSC ships often follow old naval tradition. Boarding a UNSC warship is considered a ceremony, not a formality. When boarding a ship, the boarder requests permission from the officer on deck. The officer on deck will reply with a curt "Very well".

"Dead fleets" or "paper fleets" are maintained as tradition and to honor those who died while serving. Inadvertently, some starships will be attached to these fleets by bureaucratic error. Many crewmen regarded this as a bad omen.

Design
A number of corporations helped construct UNSC ships including Sinoviet Heavy Machinery, Aerofabrique SA, TanSec AB, and Reyes-McLees Shipyards. Reach, Tribute, and Mars had ship building yards.

Facilities
Design guidelines for ships emphasize that the command crew should have visibility of the surrounding exterior area of the ship. This is usually achieved through windows on the bridge.

UNSC ships have an internal deck naming structure. On most ships, the Hangar deck is considered Zero Deck. Decks below that are "belowdeck" and are numbered in descending order starting at First Deck. Everything above the hangar deck is a "level", starting at Level One and going in an ascending order.

Facilities to create simulated War Games training sessions could be found on several ships. Though they were mostly on post-war vessels and most prominently on the UNSC Infinity.

From the Phoenix-class carrier  to the , numerous ships featured holotables for battlefield situational displays.

Cryo chambers were an important feature that allowed the crews to travel large distances without aging as much. Cryo facilities were often large and individual chambers displayed crew member names.

UNSC starships also featured mess halls, hangar bays, and armories.

Crew quarters on UNSC navy ships vary by ship type. s crew quarters were cramped with members being allocated a single sleeping pod that would sometimes need to be shared when the ship has additional crew.

Engines
UNSC ships were equipped with fusion drive engines to help them move and maneuver in real-space while Shaw-Fujikawa drives help ships reach supraluminal speeds.

Armament
A number of UNSC vessels, particularly those under the control UNSC Navy are equipped with weaponry.

MACs
MACs are massive coil guns that are used to accelerate multi-ton projectiles at extremely high velocities. These projectiles are composed of Titanium-A, depleted Uranium, and/or Tungsten with a ferrous (iron) core.

As an example, frigate based MACs are capable of firing 600-ton slugs at roughly 30/kms. UNSC Infinity has miniature MAC guns along its hull, to compliment its built in, larger MAC guns.

Missile batteries
UNSC ships generally carry an array of missile batteries. Most UNSC ships carry Archer Missiles in one of many pods. These include the M58 Archer Missile Delivery System and the M42 Archer Missile Delivery System. These were complemented with Fusion rockets.

A common tactic among UNSC ships was to disable the target's shields with MAC rounds and then pummel it with Archer missiles.

Point defense batteries
Point defense batteries were common on UNSC warships. Some of these batteries include the M910 Rampart, the M870 Rampart, the M710 Bulwark, and the Mark 57 Arena.

Nuclear weapons
UNSC warships usually contain nuclear weapons of some sort. Generally they were the. Though, in the post-war era, UNSC ships generally use the M4093 Hyperion nuclear delivery system.

Starfighter
The UNSC operates several types of starfighters. The most common being the GA-TL1 Longsword-class Interceptor. The YSS-1000 Sabre was a secretive starfighter that was mostly used in the Inner colonies. The F-41 Broadsword XMSF was a mainline starfighter that lacked the technology of the Sabre. The S-14 Baselard was also another type of starfighter used by the UNSC.

Dropship
The most common dropships in the UNSC were the Pelicans. This included the D77-TC Pelican, D78-TC Pelican and the D79H-TC Pelican. Heavier dropships were also used such as the D81-LRT Condor, the D82-EST Darter, and the D96-TCE Albatross. The largest of which was the D20 Heron. The UNSC also had dropship escape pods, the Class-3 Bumblebee.

Colony ship
The UNSC also operated a colony ship class, the.

Support starships
Several types of support ships that were used include the stealthy Prowler and its subtypes. Other stealth ship classes existed including the. There was also the incredibly small sloop. Another type of ship that was used by the UNSC was the. Following the UNSC's take over of the CAA, the helped build materiel for UNSC forces.

Warships
The UNSC employs a number of warships including frigates, destroyers and cruisers. The was unique as it was a Battleship, an uncommon warship in UNSC ship design and classification. UNSC carriers were among the largest, most heavily armed ships the UNSC possesed. Two carrier classes were so large that frigates could dock with them; the and the.

Other
ONI's Reverse Engineering and Prototyping–Xenotechnology department have recovered, refit and begun testing on multiple Covenant starships.

List of UNSC starships
The following is a list of the starships that belong to and are used by the United Nations Space Command. Carriers

Carriers
Cruisers

Cruisers
Destroyers

Destroyers
Frigates

Frigates
Prowlers

Prowlers
Corvettes

Corvettes
Colony ships

Colony Ships
Cargo/Transportation

Cargo and Transportation Ships
Other

Apocrypha
A few UNSC craft have appeared in officially created, but non-canon materials. The was a ship that appeared in a piece of concept art for Halo 3. The UNSC Frontend, an M-class carrier was the center piece of a cancelled idea for Halo Wars 3.

In Halo 4, the Charon-class is depicted as a modified Strident-class. This depiction is non-canon. The Strident-class itself is also depicted differently between the campaign mission Midnight and Spartan Ops/Daybreak.