UNSC Navy (EXverse)

The UNSC Navy is the space warfare branch of UNSC Armed Forces. Its roles include space engagements, orbital support and defense, carrying marines and starfighters as well as their deployment. Other than spacecrafts, the Navy maintain some maritime vessels in terrestrial oceans, but only on important planets such as Earth and Reach.
==History==
=== Interplanetary War ===
=== Inner Colony Wars ===
=== Insurrection ===
=== Human Covenant War ===
After the start of the Great War, the Navy found itself incredibly outgunned and outmatched against the Covenant fleet. Even if Insurrections allowed it to have much more knowledge of space warfare than it had until the late-2400's, Covenant fleet's assets proved to be something that any human had never seen before.
Combining advanced technology and tactics, during the first decade of the war Covenant fleets smashed systematically every Outer Colony's world they discovered. Only Vice Admiral Cole wins each battle he fought with his Third Fleet, but none one else had his score; only a few officers were able to repel the enemy, but both at a high price and when it was available a four-to-one or five-to-one superior fleet, which happened also very rarely. Just by the start of the Battle of Jericho VII in 2532 the ratio was reduced to three-to-one thanks to improved tactics, and the enemy was slowing down with much more efficiency.
As soon as the war begun, UNSC refitted and reintroduced decommissioned or reserve models, replacing vessels and reinforcing fleets. But from 2529 and up to 2544, when UNSC Infinity started to be constructed, every shipyards, jointly with Naval Command, avoided to introduce cutting-edge vessels. Due to the significant technological gap, reverse-engineered processes took their time to be understood and completed, time that UNSC knew to have not, and so the introduction of next-generation vessels never happened until 2549. As such, classes already in service were kept in production and upgraded as new systems came out.
Other than that, naval architects tried to create new powerful classes by using already designed and built airframes, bolstering UNSC fleets while saving time and the always declining resources. So Sinoviet Heavy Machinery, for example, upgraded Paris-class and it produced more than five hudred new frigates until the Fall of Reach, other than refitting Marathon-class cruisers and developing an innovative vessel based upon the Epoch-class and a battlecruiser based upon Marathon's hull; Italia Cantieri produced a Diligence-based super destroyer, which proved to be so effective in countering CPV-class heavy destroyer; Reyes-McLees Shipyards introduced a refitted Halcyon-class but without the legendary superstructure and a Charon-class variant based on the original TanSec AB's heavy frigate project; Sinoviet developed the Valiant-class' third block focused on Admiral Cole's improvements; Halifax Spacewerx, lastly, created three modern prototypes of the Punic-class. Despite these efforts, none of these models were enough technological advanced to counter Covenant vessels, nor they had enough firepower; only some vessels such as the Alliance and Meteor-class could had a chance against same opponents, however their number weren't sufficient.
While reverse-engineered processes had begun shortly after the start of the war, the gap was too large to be filled in a short time. But, although MAC guns were improved in some ways already in the end of 2520s, as other weapon systems granting much more effects against Covenant shields, the biggest problem was solved only twenty-seven years later, by implementing the energy shielding on the Strident frigates. Up to then, protecting vessels against directed-energy weapons remained always a major issue.
The first, true next-generation class was the Serpent-class light destroyer, which entered service in 2549; although considered the starting point of all future ships, Serpent had a major problem with the implementation of energy shielding, to the point that Starlight Naval Company decided, jointly with FLEETCOM, to introduce the class without shields. However, Serpent had anyway many revolutionary pieces: Titanium-A3 armor, a newer MAC gun though based upon an already existing system, advanced sensor, a new targeting matrix for all weapons, CODEN V series translight engine and a completely new fusion drive.
The energy shielding's problem was solved by Aerofabrique; this shipyard introduced the first frigate by 2526 in the UNSC fleet, the Strident-class, which became a further step to reach the Covenant's level of technology. However Aerofabrique had production delays which meant that many Strident were released in the final months of the war without shields, an important flaw as the frigate was itself more vulnerable than Paris and Stalwart, having the latest A3 armor but with a very low thickness. Anyway, shields were implemented on UNSC Infinity, which became the UNSC's naval might in the post-war years, with success.
=== Post-War ===
But the next-generation made another step with the refit process of the UNSC Pillar of Autumn; improvements made in 2552 for Operation: RED FLAG inspired a new cruiser based upon them, to the point that the class was called Autumn in ship's honor. The Autumn-class, other than a hyperscanner detector directly based on the same Covenant piece and a state-of-the-art Magnetic Acceleration Cannon, had an electromagnetic shield-reinforced armor's variant: when the outer Titanium hull is damaged, sensors within the armor trigger the nearest shield generator, creating an intense, transient energy shield effect localized solely on the point of impact. That systems was both cheaper and easier to produced than the standard energy shielding, allowing Sinoviet to fully introduced it on all cruisers.
But the Navy's masterpiece remained anyway the , which had not only Covenant technologies, but also advanced, yet not fully known, Forerunner technology, such as two repulsor engines and the slipspace drive. It is the most advanced and most powerful vessel of the Navy and it's the reference point for all new ships.
=== Next-generation project ===
=== Rise of the Created ===
== Personnel ==
At the start of Human-Covenant War, UNSC Navy's personnel amounted to more than ten million between sailors, officers, technicians and ONI operatives. 
Sailors and officers had a good training, but a rough knowledge of space battles thanks to Insurrection. As result, with the exception Vice Admiral Cole, in many battles the Navy lost an incredible number of vessels due to inefficient tactics against a more technologically enemy, and which knowledge of space battles was far superior. However, already at the beginning of the Siege of Inner Colonies in 2535, new, improved tactics were employed by naval officers, losing lesser ships but still at a constant rate; at this time was generally agreed that three UNSC ships were needed to destroy a single Covenant vessel, a ratio that never changed at least after the final months of the war, after the introduction of more advanced ship's classes such as Serpent, Strident and the crown jewel Infinity-class. These new ships allowed naval officers to improving again tactics, but above all it permitted an increase firepower and protection, reducing the ratio to one to one.
After the war, Navy's personnel was reduced to only more than one million.
== Organization ==
== Logistics ==
=== Propulsion systems ===
The primary sublight propulsion system is the fusion drive, an engine that fuse Deuterium and Helium-3 atoms to generate a stable and abundant supply of superheated plasma within a magnetic containment field. The plasma is channeled then into a series of exhaust manifolds, which vector it out of the ship's engine nozzles along with added water or hydrogen reaction mass to provide propulsion for the ship. The drive system utilizes inertial-electrostatic containment and higher-order manifolds to mitigate fusion backblast, while magnetic fields and thrust-vectoring plates are used to improve maneuverability. A fusion drive is capable of generate a high amount of bot power and direct thrust for the ship. Usually a UNSC warship is able to decide if direct the energy outputted to both weapons systems and engine or only to one or another. This can be useful depending on the situation.
Hyperspace travels are assured by Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine, which creates ruptures, referred to sometimes as wormholes, between normal space and an alternate plane known as slipspace (also known as slipstream space and Shaw-Fujikawa space). The engine creates these ruptures by using high-power cyclic particle accelerators to generate microscopic black holes.
=== Armor ===
The standard UNSC ship's armor is Titanium-A. Introduced slightly before Insurrection, it is made up of high-grade Titanium-50, which is specially strengthened at the molecular level using other elements, but it can be layered with elastic polymers and intermetallic laminate, allowing the host ship to mitigate both kinetic and energy-based attacks. More thickness means higher protection from both kinetic and energy attacks, but it increase also ship's weight.
Always shortly before the end of the war, energy shielding started to be introduced on UNSC ships, but its widespread use came far beyond the end of the conflict.
=== Other systems ===
=== Weapon systems ===
==== Coilguns ====
The primary armament of a UNSC ship is the Magnetic Acceleration Cannon, essentially a large coilgun built around a ship's superstructure. As such, a ship must be face directly the target, also because the slugs fired are unguided. MAC guns can accelerate a projectile at tens of kilometers thanks to coils, which are powered by energy outputted from a fusion reactor. MAC gun can fire slugs even if coils aren't fully charged, but this result in a much slower slug. Many MAC gun variants exist, which are roughly divided into light coil and heavy coil; this classification means that a ship can fire a more or less heavy slug. MAC gun became the UNSC ship's primary weapon system in 2495, when UNSC Gorgon was commissioned with the first MAC gun ever fitted onto a ship or space station. That version, which would later known as Mark I, could fire only three shells, as the ship hadn't space for additional projectiles.
Before than, long-range guided missiles were the primary weapon systems, supplemented by small coilgun batteries useful for short-range combat. Spitfire coilgun batteries are two-barreled coilgun batteries that were common even during Interplanetary War; Breakwater three-barreled coilgun batteries are also common, but only on larger ships due to size and power required, as they are considered the most powerful coilgun battery's model available; another battery model is the Hailstorm: a quad-barreled coilgun battery smaller than both Spitfire and Breakwater models, it need little energy to be operated and it is incredibly accurate. Fitted onto ships of every size, it is however less common than Spitfire.
Single-barreled coilguns employed by the Navy are Castors and LNT-class models. First ones are large naval autocannons developed after the Domus Diaspora, however they weren't able to match the reliability of Spitfires; during the Great War, besides, jointly with the development of the Strident-class, they started to be paired with the Arena point defense gun, allowing a particular configuration known as quickshot, which allowed to shot down small targets with impressive easy. Second ones, instead, are uncommon, long-range rapid-fire coilguns capable to harass enemy ships from very distant positions.
==== Missiles ====
Before the introduction of the MAC gun, long-range guided missiles were the primary weapon system employed by UNSC ships. Ares missiles have been long the preferred conventional general-purpose missiles carried by UNSC vessels for over two centuries, thanks to their reliability and incredible precision. However, by the start of 26th century Ares missiles were supplanted by Archer missiles; this changed happened because Ares were too large to be carried in large quantities, in fact an Ares cell contained one single missile, whereas Archer pods contain at least twenty warheads. The Insurrection and Human-Covenant War preferred Archer's model was the M58: while general-purpose, an Archer can being fitted with various warhead options, other than being more resistant to electronic countermeasures. The M42's model is larger, more powerful but too expensive: because of this, only selected ship classes carry them.
The other preferred type of missile is the Bident missiles; although a specialized missile capable of supplementing the MAC gun in disabling shields, it can be swapped-out with kinetic rod bundles or even fusion warheads for conducting planetary bombardment.
The Howler missiles, differently from Archers, don't pack as powerful a punch individually, but are instead designed to overwhelm enemy defenses in mass saturation attacks against dense anti-missile networks. Accordingly, they are extremely fast and agile but lack many of the warhead options available to other systems.
Primarily employed against stationary targets such as ground-based facilities and space stations, Rapier missiles are poorly equipped to handle enemy point-defenses and are typically fired in mass-saturation attacks - making them ill-suited for anti-ship usage, though they are still able to be used in this role. Initially considered a mere copy of Archers, instead they have the capacity to chase the target far beyond the Archer's range, and a hundred of them can destroy a Covenant destroyer, as showed by UNSC Infinity above Sanghelios in 2553.
Always aboard Infinity, the Navy introduced a missile battery to complement both anti-air and anti-ship systems. This system, the Lance missile battery, fires at least six self-guided M4510 85 millimeters ASGM-7 missiles capable of inflicting heavy damage to both unshielded ships and aircrafts; differently from above-mentioned missiles, Lances can rotate 360° to aim at a target. It is planned to install these systems aboard larger ships, as they have enough space to install them.
Finally, the Shrieker missile is mainly equipped on prowlers and are used against ground targets.
==== Point defense guns ====
Point-defense guns are anti-air and anti-missile coilgun systems employed by UNSC ships. There are many types:
* the Arena, a system introduced in 2552 aboard Strident frigates. It is often paired with Castor coilguns allowing them to be used in a quickshot configuration;
* the Bulwark, an uncommon systems used prominently aboard Stalwart frigates with the M710 model and, before that, aboard Diligence destroyers. It fires fifty millimeters bullet, but they are expensive;
* the Fortress. This type was introduced originally aboard Punic-class supercarriers to give them a more powerful point-defense turret, given its relevance. It is the most powerful PDG in service with UNSC Navy, as it fires seventy millimeters bullets compared to the others fifty millimeters type, aside from Sentries;
* Goalkeeper type is a ball-turret used only aboard orbital defense platform;
* the Helix is the only gatling-type PDG on the market. M810 model was common shortly before the Insurrection, but it was supplanted by Ramparts in the late-Insurrection;
* Ramparts are the most common PDG-type employed by the Navy. M800 is an older model while M870 is the most common version seen since the Insurrection aboard UNSC and CMA ships, and it can employ dual or quad-barreled turrets. M910, instead, is only dual-barreled but it has a higher rate of fire;
* Sentries are a hybrid anti-ship and anti-air autocannons, as they are not powerful enough to inflict some damage to larger ships, but it can destroy most small ships and aircrafts. They fire 120 millimeters bullets;
* Scythe turrets are dorsal twenty millimeters anti-air guns employed even before the Insurrection aboard large ships and space stations. However it is still uncommon compared to others point defense guns, due to its small caliber.
==== Other systems ====
UNSC's ships employed other weapon systems, such as nuclear missiles, energy weapons and EMP cannons.
=== Ships ===
UNSC Navy employ a wide variety of ships, which type's name is borrowed directly from wet ships. As such, UNSC Navy employ, according to size, corvettes, frigates, destroyers, cruisers, battleships and carriers. Corvettes, frigates and carriers are typically built on a horizontal axis, while cruisers generally on a vertical axis. Destroyers can be built on both axis: Hillsborough-class was built on a vertical axis as later Serpent-class, while Halberd, Diligence and Gorgon classes were built on horizontal axis.
Corvettes' primary duties are patrol and interdiction, as they are considered the fastest vessel in the Navy, although they are very lightly armed; frigates are general-purpose vessels, so they can fulfill a wide range of roles, including support of ground troops as they can entering in a planet's atmosphere, and escorting ships of any size; destroyers are built in space and their only purpose is escorting capital ships thanks to their endurance and good firepower; cruisers can both fulfill command-and-control and escort duties, depending on the design and the class, other than undertaking independent operations; battleships were an uncommon type until the advent of the Covenant invasion which rely on firepower; carriers rely on their starfighter complement and are typically used as flagship, as their lack of both firepower and armor forced them to stay behind the front line, however this depends on the subtype: for example, heavy carriers were conceived as escort of other capital ships while having a thick armor, whereas supercarriers were built with support and sustain of ground troops during large campaign in harsh environments in mind. This classification didn't change after the war, as the Navy looked at improving systems and designs, rather than doctrine, which was already changed during the conflict.
=== Starfighters ===
Starfighters, or Space fighters, are small spacecraft used for dog fighting or bombing operations. GA-TL1 Longswords are the primary starfighters operated by the Navy: having at least three variants, each one having more or less different roles, they are capable of performing every duty related to a multi-role fighter; F-41 Broadswords are similar to Longsword but are smaller and easier to produce and they are more frequently used by UNSC Air Force than the Navy thanks to its impressive sub-orbital dog fighting capabilities; FSS-1000 Sabre spaceplanes are next-generation fighters developed during the late-war, but they were used also after it and they were the first UNSC spacecrafts to employ energy shields; S-14 Baselards, instead, are considered assault fighters, but by the mid-war they were used much lesser than other space fighters; finally, Nandao starfighters are powerful anti-ship starfighters, but were used lesser than other variants as they were expensive.
B-65 Shortsword are the only strategic bomber used by the Navy during the war. However, after that they were decommissioned as the use of such bombers was no longer required. Some aircrafts were transferred to the Air Force.
== Ship classes list ==
Class' name 	Type 	Hull classification symbol	Introduced 	Retired or destroyed 	Note
Erőd 	Orbital weapon platform	OWP 	2511 	2552 	Powered by ground-based generators
Moncton 	Orbital weapon platform	OWP 	2517 	Still in service 	Power source on-board
Black Cat 	Subprowler 	PRO 	2505 	Still in service 	
Razor 	Prowler 	PRO 	2503 	2555 	
Point Blank 	Prowler 	PRO 	2510 	Still in service 	Used as prowler-task force leader or military war conferences
Eclipse 	Prowler 	PRO 	2525 	Still in service 	
Sahara 	Heavy prowler 	PRO 	2526 	Still in service 	Usually prowler's flagship
Winter 	Prowler 	PRO or IX 	2553 	Still in service 	Has cutting-edge technologies
Mako 	Light corvette 	FS 	2388 	2553 	Many fell into rebel's hands
Scholte 	Light corvette 	FS 	2388 	2553 	Many fell into rebel's hands
Lancer 	Fast attack corvette 	FS 	2476 	2545 	
Sharpfin 	Escort corvette 	FS 	2434 	2549 	
Gladius 	Heavy corvette 	FS 	2528 	Still in service 	Patrol scout on human borders
Prague 	Light frigate 	FFG 	2407 	2513 	
Charon 	Light frigate 	FFG 	2520 (UNSC service) 	Still in service 	Currently used only as transport
Paris 	Heavy frigate 	FFG 	2523 (Officially 	Still in service 	Upgraded to Flight III
Stalwart 	Light frigate 	FFG 	2526 	Still in service 	Upgraded to Flight II
Strident 	Heavy frigate 	FFG 	2549 	Still in service 	First next-generation class
Mulsanne 	Light frigate 	FFG 	2553 	Still in service 	First ship to have a directed-energy weapon as primary armament
Anlace 	Light frigate 	FFG 	2555 	Still in service 	Has only directed-energy weapons
Gorgon 	Heavy destroyer 	DD 	2495 	2534 	First class to have a MAC
Hillsborough	Heavy destroyer 	DD 	2525 (UNSC service) 	2554 	Used for internal security purposes during the war
Halberd 	Light destroyer 	DD 	2517 	Still in service 	Upgraded to Flight II
Diligence 	Light destroyer 	DD 	2433 (Initial) - 2527 (Refitted) 	2489 (First retirement) - Still in service 	In reserve fleet
Serpent 	Heavy destroyer 	DD 	2551 	Still in service 	Built with Strident-class' improvements
Sydney 	Heavy cruiser 	CA 	2486 	2539 	
Valiant 	Super-heavy cruiser 	CB or CBC 	2493 (Initial) - 2497 (Conversion) 	2495 (First retirement) - Still in service 	In reserve fleet
Halcyon 	Light cruiser 	C 	2510 	2552 	Most durable class of the war
Marathon 	Heavy cruiser 	CA 	2520 	Still in service 	Most common cruiser class in the war
Liberty 	Battlecruiser 	CB 	2527 	Still in service 	In reserve fleet
Autumn 	Heavy cruiser 	CA 	2553 	Still in service 	Next-generation cruiser
Nebula 	Light battleship 	BB 	2529 	Still in service 	First human true battleship
Alliance 	Heavy battleship 	BB 	2535 	Still in service 	One of the most effective class in the war
Meteor 	Super battleship 	BB 	2536 	2552 	Most powerful vessel during the war
Vindication 	Light battleship 	BB 	2554 	Still in service 	Ship-killer class
Javelin 	Heavy carrier 	CV 	2447 (Initial) - 2525 (Retrofitted)	2497 (First retirement) - 2535 (All destroyed)	
Epoch 	Heavy carrier 	CV 	2475 	Still in service 	One of the most effective class of the war
Phoenix 	Support vessel 	CFV 	2489 	Still in service 	Used to give back life glassed worlds
Orion 	Assault carrier 	CVA 	2502 	Still in service 	Used to help Phoenix ships in re-terraforming glassed worlds
Punic 	Supercarrier 	SCV 	2513 (Ceded by CMA) 	2552 	First class' ship to have a Super MAC
Resolute 	Light carrier 	CVL 	2524 	2549 	Marathon's carrier variant
Mediator 	Light carrier 	CVL 	2529 	Currently 	Built to augment fleets' firepower
Poseidon 	Light carrier 	CVL 	2553 	Still in service 	Lack cryo chambers due to a fast slipspace drive
Infinity 	Supercarrier 	INF 	2557 	Still in service 	The largest class ever commissioned
Whitcomb 	Heavy carrier 	CV 	TBD 	TBD 	Lead ship completed