Re'em Multirole Fighter

In terms of aerial warfare, UNSC doctrine has been centuries ahead of the Covenant. Fighters are typically designed to engage their targets at significant ranges, relying on guided missiles or highly accurate autocannons, using electronic jamming to interrupt enemy guidance and targetting, and otherwise keeping the pilots out of harms way as much as possible while dealing out as much damage as possible. Everything about it has been derived from hard lessons learned during centuries of war. For the Covenant, the closest analogue to their traditional air superiority fighter would be the propellor-drivel interceptors common during World-War II - intended for close proximity dogfights using close-range weapons in conjunction with their manoeuvrability and numbers rather than technological superiority. The Covenant have had very little history of innovation, understandable given that they have a relatively poor understanding of their own technology, and the Prophets guard what understanding they do have closely. Though perfectly adapted to its envisaged role as a ground support aircraft, delivering close air support and tactical strikes for and against ground targets, UNSC air forces have normally fared extremely well in air combat with far higher kill-to-death ratios than otherwise typical of the conflict.
Begun in 2549, the Re'em was an attempt by Sangheili designers to rectify this. Technically forbidden by San'Shyuum officials, Sangheili technicians from Ketesh worked to create a Covenant equivalent capable of taking on UNSC aircraft on an even footing. Naturally, the Prophets raised concerns, but as a purely theoretical project, they were powerless to prevent its continuation. Field Master Tulo 'Kotarqee, known for his extremely modern outlook on modern Covenant warfare, was one of the main supervisors of the project, and had a considerable amount of input.
During the concept development stage, the designers gathered as much resources as they could - holographic footage of UNSC fighters in action, crashed craft recovered from fields of combat, experts in human linguistics and technology, and a team of Huragok to assist with understanding of the concepts. The researchers found that much of the success of human aircraft was due to the range at which they engaged their enemies - while fast and nimble, Banshee's have a considerably shorter range, and are often unable to close in time to engage their enemies. Worse, the researchers found that Covenant Banshees simply lacked the durability to compete, lacking any form of energy shield compared to the thick ceramic-titanium composites.
The designers created the Re'em Fighter from the ground up to rectify these flaws, modeling it slightly on UNSC craft. For example, it possesses the same rudimentary aerodynamics for improved manoeuvrability and velocity