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Nanolaminate

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Revision as of 01:00, July 8, 2014 by NightHammer (talk | contribs)
Nanolaminate plating provides both the aesthetic and protective functions of the Covenant.

Nanolaminate hull plating is the most common form of battle plating found on the Covenant's warships.[1] It is typically purplish in color, although the CAS-class assault carrier has a pale white-blue hull and Kig-Yar vessels are generally bluish-black in color.[2] Nanolaminate plating was noted for causing the hulls of Covenant vessels to possess an odd, opalescent-like shine.[3] The plating is very strong and heat resistant, with the support of energy shielding allowing Covenant ships to take more damage.[4] The amount of nanolaminate plating applied to each ship depends on the class, though CSO-class supercarriers have well over thirty meters of armor plating.[5] As of 2525, nanolaminate plating is not used in any human construction.[6]

It is likely that Covenant dropships, such as the Type-52 Phantom, or assault platforms, such as the Type-47 Scarab, are covered with nanolaminate hull plating.

Characteristics

Defensive capabilities

A CPV-class destroyer collides with the Spirit of Fire, with the former vessel taking little damage.

The hull plating allows ships to be resilient to most UNSC weaponry. UNSC point-defense guns are not powerful enough to do significant damage to the plating,[7] Archer missiles prove to be very effective against the unshielded hull of a Covenant vessel causing the ship to become very vulnerable following the resulting explosions of the missiles.[8] Magnetic Accelerator Cannon are often used to disable and destroy Covenant vessels after the energy shielding fails, being powerful enough to pierce the nanolaminate hull plating of most ships with a single round.[9] A single pack of C-12 shaped charges can easily puncture a large hole through the hull of a Covenant cruiser.[10] A Covenant cruiser is capable of taking a direct hit from a mass driver at near point-blank range with only minor structural damage done to the nanolaminate plating, but a second hit in the same spot was capable of piercing the vessel.[11]

However, Covenant weaponry is more effective against nanolaminate plating. The CSO-class supercarrier Ascendant Justice, one of the most powerful vessels in the Covenant fleet, was heavily damaged by a single plasma turret torpedo, with several layers of the armor plating boiling away.[12]

The nanolaminate plating is also durable against direct collisions with other vessels. A CPV-class heavy destroyer took negligible damages after a direct collision with the UNSC Spirit of Fire, with its energy shields seemingly not active.[13] Although during the Second Battle of Requiem, a RCS-class armored cruiser equipped with energy shields, one of the former Covenant's most armored vessels, was obliterated after it endured a collision with the UNSC Infinity, with seemingly no damage done to the Infinity.[14]

Heat resilience

The nanolaminate plating is very heat resistant, allowing Covenant vessels to enter extreme atmospheres or absorb the long-range damage from human nuclear weapons. Upon entering the gas giant Threshold's atmosphere shield-less, the hull of Ascendant Justice heated to three hundred degrees Celsius, with no actual structural damage done to the ship.[4] Only when the ship reached temperatures of over seventeen hundred degrees Celsius did minor hull tearing and conduit melting occur.[15] However, at such high temperatures, the superstructure of the vessel becomes considerably softened.[16]

Trivia

The shield used by the Covenant's Mgalekgolo soldiers appears to be made up of a similar alloy.

Gallery

  • Renders of the CRS-class light cruiser, with its hull quite visible.

    Renders of the CRS-class light cruiser, with its hull quite visible.

  • Reach - Supercarrier.png

    A render of a CSO-class supercarrier, armored with over 30 meters of nanolaminate plating.

  • An RCS-class armored cruiser is destroyed after the Infinity collides with it.

    An RCS-class armored cruiser is destroyed after the Infinity collides with it.

  • The war-torn nanolaminate plating of a CCS-class battlecruiser.

    The war-torn nanolaminate plating of a CCS-class battlecruiser.

  • Covenant space fighters, like the Seraph, were armored with nanolaminate plating.

    Covenant space fighters, like the Seraph, were armored with nanolaminate plating.

Sources

  1. ^ Halo Waypoint: Catalog Interaction - Page 14
  2. ^ Halo: Contact Harvest, page 26
  3. ^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, page 119
  4. ^ a b Halo: First Strike, page 79
  5. ^ Halo: First Strike, page 266
  6. ^ Halo: Contact Harvest, page 176
  7. ^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, page 272
  8. ^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, page 179
  9. ^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, page 297
  10. ^ Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe, "Blunt Instruments", page 202
  11. ^ Halo: Contact Harvest, page 342
  12. ^ Halo: First Strike, page 76
  13. ^ Halo Wars, campaign level, Repairs
  14. ^ Halo 4, Departure
  15. ^ Halo: First Strike, page 84
  16. ^ Halo: First Strike, page 223
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