CAS-class assault carrier

Assault Carrier

The Covenant Assault Carrier, one of the Capital Ships in the Covenant armadas, is a heavy warship classification within the Covenant Fleet.

Function
From details drawn from Halo 2 and Halo 3, the ship seems primarily designed as a planetary assault ship, with enough shielding and firepower to break through enemy defenses then disgorge forces from its mammoth launch bays (which are even big enough to house two UNSC Frigates) and can remain in the same place within a planetary atmosphere. However, these gargantuan ships fill more than just one roll, as they can be used to be the Flagship of one of the Covenant Fleets.

Background
The Assault Carriers are massive Covenant spacecraft capable of widespread destruction. They are armed with energy beam projectors and their gravity lifts can also be used as a planetary siege weapon. Two of these crafts, one commanded by the High Prophet of Regret, attacked New Mombassa, Earth on October 20th, 2552.

They are larger than s, with three primary bulbous sections as opposed to the two on a CCS-Battlecruiser class. They have large, bulbous fronts that taper towards the back of the ship for aerodynamically.

Armament


Due to their mammoth bulk, they have to be quite heavily armed. They are possibly armed with at least one Energy Projector, one or more pulse lasers , and an unknown amount of Plasma Torpedos, which can be launched from the nose, bow and the underside of the ship.

Assault Carriers are also equipped with at least one gravity lift, which can be used as a weapon if needed. This gravity lift is speculated to reverse itself and adjust its reversed power to full strength causing it to decimate any object in its path. However, their main assets likely lie in their starfighter and troop compliments, as per their classification as Carriers. It is known that they possess Seraph fighters, Banshees, Spirits, Phantoms and even Drop Pods, along with many legions of Grunts, Brutes, Jackals, Drones, Elites, Hunters, Ghosts, Spectres, Wraiths, Shadows and other ground units.

Characteristics
Assault Carriers, like the vast majority of other Covenant ships, are characterized by their bulbous silhouette. However, they also tend to be characterized by their unique swollen and bulbous "hook" shaped nose that is frequently characterized to be similar to the head of a whale. It is also explained as teardrop shaped because its distinctive look from above. As a dedicated Carrier Ship, the ship's docking/launch bays are significantly larger than the smaller s. The Assault Carrier contains at least one bay that is capable of comfortably holding two UNSC Frigates within, with enough room left over for smaller ships to fly through. To merely hold the Frigates side-by-side, and maintain at least some room so that the ships aren't touching and for the crew to move around in, means that it has a hanger bay that is at least 500 meters long 320 meters wide and 120 meters high. Due to the fact that there is enough room for other ships to fly around in it, the dimensions of its hanger bay are likely much larger. They also appear to have a slightly exposed deuterium-tritium fusion reactor. This was the downfall of one Carrier, as Master Chief was able to get a Covenant bomb near this powercore. When the bomb detonated, the power core detonated as well and the ship was destroyed. Assault Carriers seem to possess three rather large engines directly beneath the tail of the ship which would be necessary to propel a ship of that size through space or a planetary atmosphere.

Known Carriers

 * Shadow of Intent


 * Prophet of Regret's Carrier


 * Ascendant Justice

Appearances

 * There were two Assault Carriers that participated in the First Battle of Earth - one was the Prophet of Regret's personal starship and the other was destroyed by SPARTAN-117 using a captured Covenant bomb intended for usage on Cairo Station.
 * In the Halo 3 preview, the only Covenant capital ships present in the "excavation force" at the site of the Forerunner artifact are Assault Carriers. This is most likely due to the importance of the holy site to the Covenant.
 * Assault Carriers appear several times in Halo 3. The first carrier is shown holding position above the Ark excavation site during the levels Tsavo Highway and The Storm. The Elite Fleet that arrives at Earth during Floodgate is led by the carrier Shadow of Intent, which later engages a Covenant Loyalist Fleet above the Ark containing at least two Assault Carriers.
 * In Halo 2 when the Prophet of Regret's Carrier enters Slipspace it destroys the whole city of New Mombasa, because the ship was too far into the atmosphere, which caused a massive shock wave, destroying the Orbital Elevator and the whole city.
 * In the commentary for cutscenes in Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2, they misnamed an Assault Carrier a Supercarrier. The Supercarrier is actually another type of Covenant ship and is even larger than an Assault Carrier.
 * It is also known that an Assault Carrier can hold up to one or more Scarab tanks. This was demonstrated by the Prophet of Regret during the First Battle of Earth, when he used a Scarab to almost decimate the city.

Trivia

 * In an earlier plan of Halo 2, there was supposed to be a level where you, the Master Chief, boards an Assault Carrier and destroys it from the inside.
 * In the current US Navy, the term refers to the Amphibious Assault Ship, used to transport troops via water and offload them via hovercraft or helicopter.