Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicle

A Human Entry Vehicle was a small pod used by the UNSC to deploy an individual soldier from high orbit to the ground. HEV usage was popularly associated with Orbital Drop Shock Troopers although SPARTAN-IIs were also fully qualified in their use.

Doctrine
HEVs allowed for the rapid deployment of ground assault troops near or right onto an objective. Their smaller profiles made them more difficult to destroy by defensive fire than conventional dropships. The large number of pods dropped at once also increased the probability of some of the attack force surviving to the land. Each pod bore the name of the soldier inside; amongst other things this identification could be used to identify the unfortunate occupant of a destroyed pod.

ODST doctrine required the command unit of an HEV-facilitated assault to land first to minimize the period of disorder that might occur as pods landed and soldiers deployed. Command unit HEVs were equipped with additional features, including high-powered imaging gear and the Class C military AI (such as Wellsley ) required to operate it.

The first UNSC troops on the ring during the Battle of Installation 05, John-117 and a platoon of ODST, were deployed by HEV from the. In this case, the Class C AI was supplanted by the AI Cortana.

Reentry
An HEV resembled a boxy raindrop and was made of Titanium-A, Lead Foil, and a ceramic skin. The skin burned away during atmospheric reentry, protecting the rest of the pod and its occupant from the worst of the considerable heat. However, even with this ablation it was not unknown for passengers to be killed when tolerances were exceeded.

Once within the atmosphere a metal drag chute would deploy for a short while before detaching to steady the descent, keep the pod on course, and provide some deceleration. A more conventional backup chute was provided for landing, although final deceleration was often accomplished using retro rockets forcing the passenger to experience significant gee-forces. Needless to say, failure of any combination of components could be fatal.

Cargo
In addition to the trooper, the HEV necessarily carried other supplies, such as weapons, ammunition, rations, and a cubicle for shelter. This allowed a trooper to fight from the HEV without need for immediate resupply.

Long Range Stealth Orbital Insertion Pod
An offshoot of the HEV was the Long Range Stealth Orbital Insertion Pod which came into service around 2545. The long range pods featured an Stealth Ablative Coating and could be launched from slipspace.

Covenant Orbital Insertion Pod
The Covenant had a HEV equivalent known as a Orbital Insertion Pod. These were used to deploy Elites during the Battle of New Mombasa.

Similarities
HEVs bear some resemble to the blue and red objects (pictured at left) from Oni.

Popularly, the concept of dropping individual soldiers onto a planet from orbit in pods is attributed to Robert E. Heinlein's novel Starship Troopers. HEVs in Halo act similarly to those described in the book. ODST doctrine of 'command unit first' also resembles Mobile Infantry doctrine of 'officers first'.

HEVs also have an similar shape to the much larger examples used by Space Marines in Warhammer 40,000, another franchise that drew inspiration from Starship Troopers.