Hermes-class surveillance cruiser

The Hermes-class surveillance cruiser is an electronic warfare ship in service with the . Originally designed as the 's response to the stealth prowlers of the , the Hermes would contain sensor and electronic systems far superior to her counterparts in the CMA and UNSC fleets. Seeing limited service in the Insurrection, the Hermes would prove its worth during the as a support asset to large fleets of human warships, though its lack of offensive weaponry would often leave it defenceless against vessels. Taking heavy casualties during the war, only a handful would survive into the postwar period, with its role being rapidly replaced in the fleet by the cheaper, more numerous and arguably more capable .
==Layout==
The Hermes-class surveillance cruiser follows UNSC tradition in the design and shape of her cruisers. A long, narrow hull that expands in width towards the engines, with her bridge positioned on the underside of the hull. In this way it is extremely similar to the Marathon-class heavy cruiser and Halcyon-class light cruiser, however differs in weaponry. Having only either M48 Ares silos and M58 Archer pods as an offensive armament, it lacks the that most UNSC ships are famed for. This is due to the strain a MAC's operations would put on the ship's electrical systems that were already under pressure from her significant amount of cyberwarfare and sensor systems. This does, however, give her much more space for crew amenities, combat sensor facilities, and spacecraft hangars that allow for an enlarged ground forces complement. However, these additions to the ship, along with its that is thin for a cruiser, makes it a relatively timid ship that cannot take as much punishment as other capital ships in the UNSC fleet.
== Roles and Tactics==
Whilst often overlooked by military enthusiasts due to its supposed lack of capability in direct combat, the Hermes-class was nevertheless a significant asset for UNSC battlegroups that contained one. Due to its unparalleled sensor and communications arrays, the Hermes would often be used as a backline support vessel, providing large amounts of targeting and sensor data to other vessels in the squadron over the battlenet. The systems that proved invaluable in coordinating salvoes of MACs and missiles also showed their worth in detecting stealth ships, whether they be prowlers stalking a CMA flotilla, or a Covenant reconnoitering a human colony world.
It is uncommon to see a Hermes operating in small squadrons and flotillas, with UNSC admirals preferring to use their very focused utility within large groups of warships. Due to their lack of main armament and support-oriented missile systems, the Hermes would never be used in frontline combat roles unless the situation was desperate enough. A notable example of this would be the Second Battle of Harvest, where the lead ship, the UNSC Hermes, would move forward to take the place of the destroyed cruiser , before being destroyed herself. The Hermes advanced sensor systems and communications suites gives it leverage in the fleet as an important vessel, and has the necessary facilities to embark a commander of a battlegroup and act as a flagship. The vulnerability of the sensors on the Hermes are quite noticeable, protruding from the hull without any protective armour plating: however, this is to not interfere and potentially disrupt any information garnered from her systems.
==Specifications==
===Propulsion and Powerplant===
The powerplant of the Hermes is the same types utilised by the Halcyon-class light cruiser, three modified . Whilst reliable and easy to maintain, its underpowered performance has led to ships mounted with it being regarded as sluggish for cruiser standards. However, the Hanley-Messer DFR is not as much of a detriment to the Hermes-class, due to the lighter construction and thinner armour, however much of this is in response to the numerous heavy systems the ship is equipped with. The modifications made to the design of the Hanley-Messer during the design phase of the Hermes mostly fixed the issues with the reactor's overall construction, somewhat placating the claims of the cruiser's underperformance. 
Its propulsion is composed of 12 separate fusion drives. Two main propulsion drives made by the engine conglomerate provide most of the ship's power, with the ten secondary drives provided by Direxion Propellants, to give extra maneuvering capability to the vessel. The choice of using two different companies to design different components of the ship's propulsion systems has been often frowned upon due to the issues it has caused with other ships in the fleet, namely the horrendously-underpowered Gantry-class light destroyers, however both companies cooperated well enough to ensure there were no underlying problems within the systems themselves. Whilst the Apex-III 511E drives were designed and built specifically for the Hermes, Direxion Propellant's Militant-14 secondary drives were recycled from the Halcyon-class light cruiser, with several small upgrades and a redesignation to identify the differences in power output and energy thresholds. 
=== Armament===
As an electronic warfare cruiser, the Hermes main armament is quite restricted in its capability. It relies on other ships in the fleet to function as the main battleline, supporting their operations with its own long-range missile salvoes and cyberwarfare systems. The main armament is composed of 26 silos of the obsolescent yet powerful , supported by 12 pods of . The Ares missiles are meant to be the Hermes stopping power, capable of severely wounding if not killing any light enemy ships, such as frigates and destroyers. The Archers are more meant to be a support weapon, able to assist other main-line capital and escort vessels in their own missile barrages. Whilst it is a relatively weak armament, the Hermes as a support vessel is not meant to engage in ship-to-ship duels, and as such the weaponry was deemed as sufficient by the CMA design committee. Block II were initially meant to be mounted with an extra six pods of Archers, and have the M58s replaced with M42s, however due to the rushed nature of their construction this would not be followed through on. 
In terms of anti-single ship weaponry, the Hermes has ten point defence batteries, with each battery containing two 50mm naval autocannons. Whilst not as strong as its cruiser counterparts, it is still quite dangerous to unsuspecting Insurrectionist or Covenant fighters approaching what may be perceived as a defenceless target. During the Human-Covenant War, the second Block of Hermes were intended to have another four M910 batteries, however due to the batteries constructed for them being seized by other shipyards to equip the ever-increasing number of Marathon-class heavy cruisers being commissioned, several would maintain the Block I standard of 12 Rampart batteries. Two ships in Block II, the Bad to the Bone and These Days were completely stripped of their entire M910 armament, causing them to instead be equipped with sixteen M870 Rampart batteries instead. 
Throughout the Human-Covenant War, many Hermes captains would attempt to upgun their ships as they found that UNSC battlelines were often not enough to protect them from ranged Covenant alpha strikes, or the smaller Covenant ships that could slip past the fleet's defences. As such, this caused many Hermes to have some further additions to their armament, often trading certain systems to better achieve their desired want for better armament. This had the negative effect of stripping certain vessels of parts of their cyberwarfare systems. The most notable example of this would be the UNSC Mercury, which had its M58 Archers stripped and replaced with four batteries of , giving the ship more offensive capability at the cost of maneuverability and its MAGICIAN countermeasure dispensers.
===Armour and Superstructure===
The Hermes-class was not designed to be a brawler, due to its intended role as a support vessel behind the main fleet. As such, its armour comparative to other UNSC cruisers can be considered lackluster, with a maximum thickness of 120 centimetres of Titanium-A1 armour plating. The average thickness of the hull was in fact 100 centimetres, with the thickest armour positioned over the engines, the command deck and the cyberwarfare operations center. During the Human-Covenant War, several captains would in fact add armour to their ships, decreasing their acceleration and maneuverability, however allowing them to take more damage in combat. Block II ships were designed with more armour and more powerful fusion drives, however this would be shelved in favour of getting as many ships into the fleet as fast as possible, skipping the long and tedious design phase of ship propulsion.
As a UNSC cruiser, the Hermes-class would stick to the tried and tested design philosophy of a long, narrow ship that expanded in width and height towards the stern, with most of her superstructure following UNSC standard. Like with the Halcyon-class, her bridge was positioned on the underside of the hull towards the bow, with her hangars positioned along the hull around the midships. However, unlike other cruisers, the Hermes had a designated cyber command operations center, due to her intended role. This was positioned within the bowels of the ship, directly under the AN/SPC-58 RADAR sensor system, providing a direct link to the UNSC battlenet. Whilst not standard, most Hermes captains would install large video screens within the cyber ops center, to give the electronic warfare operators the best possible view of an engagement. On several occasions, the bridge itself would not be used, with the captain instead expanding the ops center to accommodate the bridge crew for better survivability in case of a direct hit to the bridge.
===Sensors===
The sensors and countermeasures of the Hermes-class is where the design truly stands out from her counterparts, such as the Marathon, Halcyon, or even the Valiant-class supercruiser. The ships have three main sensor systems that, when coordinated and utilised properly, can be a significant asset for a UNSC or CMA battlegroup. The AN/SAR-11 passive infrared sensor system is arguably the most important of the three, being able to use heat signatures and infrared imagery to detect enemy vessels at extreme range, using high-density particle fields focused into three sensor beams that can scan targets from up to 798 million kilometres away. With the sensors positioned on a scanning bulb that can rotate 250 degrees, the Hermes can easily swivel its scanners to find ships off to its port and starboard. On occasion it has even been known to be able to detect targets hiding inside , however this is not a common occurrence.
The AN/SEC-23 multirole laser system is also positioned on a sensor bulb, mounted on the top of the hull rather than the forward position of the AN/SAR-11. The AN/SEC-11 has multiple functions, that being of an active defensive system and targeting beam. In its active defence system, the AN/SEC-23 is capable of disrupting Covenant guidance systems for plasma torpedoes and pulse lasers. In the latter stages of the Human-Covenant War, it was discovered that the Hermes was capable of even slightly interfering with the targeting systems for the plasma lance utilised by the rare yet dangerous Covenant supercruisers. By emitting large amounts of energy from the purpose=built Mark 44 Guidance Disruptor Lens, it can interfere with the sensors on both human and Covenant ships, either halting them from gaining a targeting solution on friendly vessels, or disrupting the projectile's connection from the in-flight guidance (whether it be a salvo of missiles or a plasma torpedo). Its other function is a targeting beam. Using the Mark 21 Concentrated Beam Emitter, the AN/SEC-23 can use its laser to 'lase' an enemy vessel at extreme distances, increasing the range of not only its own weapons systems, but others in the fleet. Its capability of locking onto warships at long range and accurately depicting future positions of the ship allows UNSC ships to use weapon systems that were previously limited by the computational power of their own firing solutions, such as M58 Archer missiles and even Magnetic Accelerator Cannons.
The AN/SPQ-58 is the final main sensor system that gives the Hermes, and by extension its surrounding fleet, an edge over Insurrectionist and Covenant squadrons. Able to operate in both passive and active RADAR search modes, as well as directly-transmitting its own data to other surrounding ships via the battlenet, the AN/SPQ-58 was the most advanced UNSC and CMA RADAR in service at the time of its conception in 2510. Its fire control abilities also allowed the Hermes to coordinate alpha strikes of missiles, MACs and coilguns with its DirectConnex-5443 computational chip, as well as provisions for a 'smart' AI which radically increase overall systems performance. The AN/SPQ-58 also gave targeting data to the AN/SEC-23 when the latter was in its active defence function, combining the sensors of both systems to ensure almost total accuracy in engaging and disrupting enemy guidance systems. 
In addition to the above sensors, the Hermes-class also carries a complement of ten , mounted in silos lined along the bottom of the fuselage. The Clarions give the Hermes added capability in reconnoitering solar systems and spotting Covenant vessels, along with providing advanced intelligence on enemy fleet dispositions and potential Insurrectionist bases within asteroid belts. 
=== Countermeasures ===
The countermeasures carried by the Hermes-class were part of the first-generation of countermeasures to be utilised by the CMA and UNSC. The Mark 282-1 Rapid Offboard Countermeasures were the first of their kind, able to misdirect Archer missiles mid-flight due to SinoViet Heavy Industries' Navigational Direction Lockers: a series of Universal Navigational Array-interlinked canisters, that could produce a signal that closely resembled the Hermes' profile. Whilst they had teething problems - namely a failure to trigger and a deformed ship profile - they worked often enough against Insurrectionist vessels to be considered successful. Against Covenant sensors however they were not as successful, leading to the NDLs being largely replaced with standard flares and chaff. Complementing this were the AN/SLQ-49 MAGICIAN countermeasure dispersers, that could fire the Mark 282-1 ROCs and standard Mark 122 Visible Flare Countermeasures.
=== Ground & Space Complement ===
The Hermes-class, whilst filling a different role to most other human vessels, still had a dedicated ground complement to assist in planetary invasions and boarding actions, as well as a limited wing of single ship craft. Unlike most UNSC and CMA warships, which have the ground martialing areas are situated in the lower hull, they are instead positioned adjacent to the spacecraft hangars to allow for ease of use when offloading. With an over-strength company of UNSC marines on board, they have access to a squadron of M808B Scorpion main battle tanks and a vehicle company of M12 Warthog light vehicles, with provisions for these to be swapped out for more specialised equipment. There are also two platoons worth of ODSTs deployed on board, with an equivalent amount of SOEIV drop pods positioned on the underside of the hull. 
In terms of air and spacecraft, the Hermes carries a squadron of GA-TL Longsword fighter-bombers. Due to the restrictive size of the hangars, the models used in the Hermes have to be of the C712 model. The Hermes' cargo-lift role is filled by the use of four D82-EST Darters, with medium lift capacity fulfilled by twelve D77-TC Pelican dropships. With extensive modification to the size of the hangars, the Hermes can accommodate D79-TC Condor dropships, however this has only been done once for Operation: FLY SWATTER. When combined with other fighters and dropships from other ships in a battlegroup, the Hermes' complement of ships is quite potent, and extensive for a ship of its role and size.
==Blocks and Variants==
===Block I===
Block I was the original flight of Hermes-class. Originally planned for exclusive Colonial Military Authority use due to the project being commissioned and funded by the CMA, of the twenty laid down only twelve would see service with the CMA Navy. Two would be seized during construction by the UNSC, with the other six transferred to UNSC jurisdiction before they began construction. Additionally, the UNSC would order another twenty of the cruisers, due to wanting as many as possible to outfit their hunter-killer squadrons and battlefleets. Block I featured a feature not seen on Block II or III vessels, in that it was capable of reconfiguring two of its forward hangars into mounting brackets for further Rampart point defence batteries, however this would almost never be done due to Hermes captains preferring to maintain their considerable strike craft capability. However, Block I did not include the Block II's tertiary and quaternary UNA-uplinks or its ability to conduct surveying missions on previously-undiscovered systems.
===Block II===
Block II would be ordered for the UNSC Navy in 2525, after the Covenant was first encountered and the Outer Colonies came under attack. With a total of twenty ships, Block II would be built to further the UNSC's capability in combatting the Covenant in the cyberwarfare area of combat, as the Block I Hermes-class would prove in multiple engagements to be successful in that mission. Commissioned between 2529 and 2533, the Block II would see the added tertiary and quaternary Universal Navigation Array uplinks, the removal of the Rampart brackets over the hangars, and (originally) were meant to be equipped with four more Rampart batteries, although for most ships this would be dropped as shortages of point defence guns became prevalent, due to the slow manufacturing process of the weapons. Block II would also see an upgrade to the Hermes' countermeasures, featuring the addition of the Mark 122 VFCs to augment the Mark 282 ROCs, which had proven to have severe reliability issues in pre-war service that would not be fixed until the commissioning of the Artemis-class battlecruisers in 2537, well after the second block of the Hermes-class had finished construction.
===Block III (Cancelled)===
The Hermes-class Block III was a planned flight of twelve Hermes-class cruisers, ordered in the final years of the Human-Covenant War. Planned to incorporate a number of upgrades to her cyberwarfare operations and sensors, the ships would first start being laid down above Paris IV and Reach between 2549 and 2552. However, with the glassing of Paris IV in May of that year led to the six hulls planned around SinoViet's orbital shipyards over Mimir to be destroyed. The other six planned to be built at Reach would continue onwards at a steady pace, until July 2552, when the Covenant discovered the fortress world. The most advanced ship (hull number C-184), would be commissioned in an ad hoc ceremony, equipped only with her Ares missile silos and laser targeting system. used as a fireship, she would notably aid in the destruction of a Covenant DDS-class heavy carrier by ramming it and detonating her Ares missiles inside their silos.
Block III was meant to be the most advanced Hermes-class in the UNSC's fleet, rather than a simple rehash of previous designs. They were planned to be equipped with ONI's newest AN/SPQ-72 multirole RADAR, developed by the Watershed Division, which doubled its effective range and would have given UNSC fleets a huge advantage in tactical coordination. Several other upgrades, such as improved infrared sensors adapted and reverse-engineered from Covenant technology, the complete removal of the bridge and expansion of the cyber-ops station to contain the command crew, and the complete overhaul of her point defence network to use Ramparts and Helix turrets in conjunction, would have all contributed to the Hermes Block III becoming one of the most valued and sought-after ships in a UNSC battlegroup, rivalling the importance of even carriers and supercruisers.
==Operational History==
===Development===
In the late 2490s, the Colonial Military Administration found their operations in the Outer Colonies be increasingly surveilled by the UNSC, and by extension the Office of Naval Intelligence. Whilst these were mostly done by ONI's Section Two, and the UNSC's United Expeditionary Command (or UNECOM), it was nonetheless impeding on CMA activity as they attempted to carry out actions and missions without oversight from their Inner Colony rivals. CMA command knew that whilst they could easily identify the lone UNSC frigates and corvettes stalking their battlefleets, the prowlers that were obviously being used by ONI to watch CMA operations were present in many areas, with the most obvious giveaways being the occasional slipspace rupture followed by no detectable vessel. Due to this, the CMA would convert over three dozen of their Geneva-class light frigates to the electronic warfare role, outfitted with enhanced sensors and RADAR systems to aid them in detecting prowlers and other UNSC and ONI stealth ships. 
The re-categorisation and refitting of the Genevas caught the UNSC and ONI unawares, as they suddenly found their prowlers to be spotted, apprehended, and forced to withdraw from the system. Whilst this would inspire ONI to begin the design process for several more classes of prowlers, the UNSC in response would convert some of their own Genevas to the electronic warfare role, in attempts to spot the CMA's rare but capable Majesty-class stealth corvettes. The CMA and UNSC would go tit-for-tat over the 2490s and 2500s, each attempting to one up the other with continual upgrades to their Geneva's capabilities, until in 2507 the CMA would unveil the Gantry-class light destroyer, meant to function as both an electronic warfare vessel and frontline combatant.
The Gantry was a colossal failure. Only six would be built, and became known in the CMA Navy as underpowered, sluggish and ineffective ships. Their sensors were essentially enlarged versions of those mounted on the Genevas, which meant that they often suffered from severe reliability problems and electrical failures, as the ship's fusion reactors were unable to power the propulsion systems, the cyberwarfare systems and the Magnetic Accelerator Cannon. This spurned the CMA to go back to the drawing board in 2509, to design a ship capable of spotting the newest generation of ONI prowlers they had been informed of, that were undergoing tests in the Inner Colonies. Headed by CMA Commodore Sarah Everson, the committee would lay down the specifications for the new ship: it had to be of cruiser size, carry the latest in sensor and fire control technology, a maximum displacement of 14 million tonnes, and have a sizable ground force complement to be able to function as an orbital support vessel in conjunction with its surveillance role.
With the specifications sent out, three companies would respond: , , and . Whilst TanSecAB was a small escort ship designer, their design was a 13.8 million ton cruiser, with a light frigate MAC as the main armament, along with Mark 33 Spitfire coilguns and M58 Archer pods. SinoViet submitted a similar design, with two light MACs and M58 Archers, although no coilguns. Ceres were the only company to submit a design without a MAC, as they realised the need for the electrical systems of the vessel not to be overstrained by the multiple other systems that needed power, such as the sensors, fusion drives and basic needs such as artificial gravity and life support. It was this consideration that saw Ceres' design chosen, as SinoViet's ship was considered too heavy and underpowered, whilst TanSec AB withdrew from the competition due to the loss of several of their production facilities to . 
Construction would be authorised in September 2511, after several design reworks that involved the addition of an offensive armament made up of missile pods, and the inclusion of four more secondary fusion drives to give the design more maneuverability. Finally, the ship would be approved for CMA military service, given the name of the Hermes-class and designation as a surveillance cruiser. Laid down at the CMA's main naval yards at Kingston, Steinhold and Biko, the Hermes-class would often appear on UNSC intelligence reports as a new design of light cruiser, meant to act as a heavy planetary picket ship for the CMA's stronghold worlds. It would progress as an exclusive CMA Navy design until 2514, when the UNSC realised what the real purpose of the Hermes was from a UNSC agent embedded in the CMA Navy's Naval Deployment Bureau, as a CMA fleet commander made a request for the lead ship, the Hermes herself, to be deployed to his command first to counter Insurrectionist cyberwarfare ships operating in his sector. 
Discovering the planned flight of forty surveillance cruisers being laid down across the Outer Colonies, the UNSC would act quickly in an attempt to secure as many hulls as possible. Citing the need for extra warships and using the Wartime Extremities Bill passed by the UEG in 2513, the UNSC would seize twelve of the already-building Hermes, and the sixteen remaining cruisers that hadn't begun construction. The contracts for those vessels would be stripped from Outer Colonies shipyards and instead built around Reach and Mars, with the final ship in the flight being commissioned in 2519. 
===Insurrection===
Of the forty Hermes-class that would see service during the Insurrection, most actual combat missions were conducted by the twenty-eight UNSC vessels of the class, as the most combat-effective UEG organisation. These surveillance cruisers would be invaluable to the UNSC's efforts to root out Insurrectionist asteroid bases and mining rigs, as they used their advanced sensor equipment to scout out through magma tubes and the interiors of asteroids, and identify URF hideouts. The Hermes-class were so effective at their intended use that the URF put out bounties for the destruction of these ships for mercenaries and pirates, although they would never have to pay out due to the Hermes-class always operating with either a substantial escort, or an UNSC battlegroup. 
The CMA Navy's Hermes-class would have a much quieter service life during the latter stages of the Insurrection, mostly being used within CMA units as a ward to keep ONI prowlers at bay. The most prevalent example of this was when the CMA Hermes, operating with a small force of CMA destroyers and frigates, passively detected the prowlers No Secrets and Venom Tongue whilst on a routine patrol through the Biko System. The Hermes' sensors picked up the prowlers as soon as they exited slipspace, and was able to track their movements using passive RADAR systems and her laser designators for the duration of the six-day patrol around Biko. As they were leaving the system, the Hermes activated her active sensor systems and pinged the two prowlers, before jumping to slipspace. The outrage within ONI over the incident caused a huge command reshuffling within the Prowler Corps, and an overhaul of prowler stealth operations and their reconnaissance procedures.
By 2523, the CMA's power had been usurped to an extent that the UNSC felt confident enough to begin seizing vessels of cruiser-size and above. Whilst this had been done before, specifically in 2503 with the supercarrier UNSC Jutland after the Gravel's Ridge Incident, the UNSC, which had been slowly stripping the CMA of singular ships throughout the 2500s, had never attempted to seize so many ships in one fell swoop. However they did so in March 2523, seizing the CMA's entire fleet of Hermes-class cruisers from the CMA's naval yards and port facilities. With a full twenty Hermes-class in the inventory, the UNSC would continue anti-Insurrectionist operations with an increased tempo, until the arrival of the Covenant in March 2525. 
By November, all Hermes-class cruisers had been recalled to Reach along with hundreds of other ships, in the UNSC's largest ever assembly of naval vessels in one location: some 584 warships would be organised into different fleets and flotillas, with the Hermes-class spread around as much as possible, before they were all dispatched to the frontier worlds of the Outer Colonies to prepare for the inevitable Covenant offensives. 
===Human-Covenant War===
The Hermes-class would serve diligently throughout the conflict, giving UNSC battlegroups a serious advantage in combatting the Covenant in naval battles. Whilst severely vulnerable to Covenant plasma weaponry (moreso than other UNSC cruisers), they performed valiantly at battles and were notable in turning the tide in several engagements, such as the Battle of Hat Yai in 2528. However, more often than not they would be misused due to a general lack of understanding of Covenant electronic systems and cyberwarfare capabilities, and saw heavy losses in the first ten years of the war, A second block would be ordered in 2526, with the first commissioning in 2529. However, the second block of twenty cruisers would mostly be pulled back in use with UNSC defensive fleets in the Inner Colonies, or used sparingly in human hunter-killer squadrons. The most notable offensive engagement the cruisers would participate in was Operation: FLY SWATTER, where four of the cruisers would assist UNSC vessels in disabling Covenant targeting sensors and fire control systems during engagements and ambushes. 
The Hermes would be a very sought-after ship after its capabilities against Covenant ships were made known to the rest of the navy in 2536, when a single Hermes-class ship would almost single-handedly disable a force of six Covenant warships' weaponry and energy shielding, allowing the five frigates escorting her to take them apart piecemeal. This decisive battle would display just how successful a Hermes could be in space combat, thus mandating an entire doctrinal overhaul for the use of cyberwarfare against Covenant vessels. This overhaul would see a marked increase in the effectiveness of UNSC electronic warfare ships, although throughout the remainder of the war the Hermes-class would nonetheless take formidable losses in the defence of human colonies.
By 2549, the amount of Hermes-class surveillance cruisers in the UNSC's inventory had almost hit single digits, spurning a third block of twelve ships to be ordered with vastly-improved cyberwarfare and offensive weaponry inventory. However, no ships would be completed, as they would be either cancelled or destroyed during construction in the Covenant's campaigns at Paris IV and Reach. After the Battle of Earth, the few remaining Hermes that had miraculously escaped destruction would be upgraded to the cancelled-Block III standards, and assigned to the new expeditionary fleets exploring and uniting lost colonies back to the UEG, and destroying any Covenant remnant factions encroaching on the former Outer Colonies. 
However, their role as electronic warfare vessels would be undercut by the introduction of the Anlace-class electronic warfare frigate, a much cheaper alternative to the now old and expensive Hermes-class. By the Created Crisis, the Hermes-class had been relegated to planetary defence fleets, which would be decommissioned following the conflict after an illustrious service period with the UNSC. One ship, the UNSC Mercury, would be turned into a museum ship above Earth, serving as a memorial to the men and women that had served in the UNSC's Silent Service: the Naval Cyber and Electronic Warfare Corps.
==Ships of the Line ==
Name 	Hull Classification Symbol 	Commissioned 	Destroyed 	Notes
Block I
The original prewar production batch of Hermes-class cruisers commissioned between 2515 and 2524. Assigned hull codes C-811-C-850.	Block I
The original prewar production batch of Hermes-class cruisers commissioned between 2515 and 2524. Assigned hull codes C-811-C-850.	Block I
The original prewar production batch of Hermes-class cruisers commissioned between 2515 and 2524. Assigned hull codes C-811-C-850.	Block I
The original prewar production batch of Hermes-class cruisers commissioned between 2515 and 2524. Assigned hull codes C-811-C-850.	Block I
The original prewar production batch of Hermes-class cruisers commissioned between 2515 and 2524. Assigned hull codes C-811-C-850.
UNSC (ex-CMA) Hermes 	C-811 	2515 	2526 	Scuttled at the Second Battle of Harvest.
UNSC (ex-CMA) MercuryClaimed by 	C-815 	2515 	N/A 	Museum ship above Earth.
UNSC Peitho 	C-828 	2517 	2540 	Destroyed during the Atlas Moons Campaign.
UNSC CawdorClaimed by 	C-835 	2521 	 	
Block IIThe first wartime build of Hermes-class cruisers commissioned between 2529-2533. Assigned hull codes C-91-C-110.	Block IIThe first wartime build of Hermes-class cruisers commissioned between 2529-2533. Assigned hull codes C-91-C-110.	Block IIThe first wartime build of Hermes-class cruisers commissioned between 2529-2533. Assigned hull codes C-91-C-110.	Block IIThe first wartime build of Hermes-class cruisers commissioned between 2529-2533. Assigned hull codes C-91-C-110.	Block IIThe first wartime build of Hermes-class cruisers commissioned between 2529-2533. Assigned hull codes C-91-C-110.
UNSC Bad to the Bone 	C-95 	2529 	2546 	Destroyed during the Tirana Campaign.
UNSC These Days 	C-104 	2532 	2552 	Destroyed at the Fall of Reach.
==UNSC Remarks ==
==Notes==
The Hermes-class surveillance cruiser is based on and inspired by the ship revealed in the upcoming Sins of the Prophets 2 mod made by Chokepoint Games for the game Sins of a Solar Empire. Any visual content seen or used on the page is used with consent from the creator of the Hermes-class render, and is in no way claimed to be original content created by the authors of the page. Also, a special thank you is due to BaconShelf for making the 3D model, and graciously providing the images and general dimensions and weaponry of the Hermes.
Category:Carrier classes
Category:UNSC Ship Classes
Category:Cruisers
Category:Ships of the UNSC Navy
Category:Cruiser classes