CAS-class assault carrier

Assault Carrier

The Covenant Assault Carrier is a Covenant capital ship and heavy warship classification of the Covenant Navy. It is one of the largest known Covenant ship types and the largest seen in-game. It appears in both Halo 2 and Halo 3.

Function
Assault Carriers seem to be designed primarily for planetary assault scenarios, using their powerful energy shields and extensive weapons to break through orbital defenses, transporting and deploying large numbers of ground troops. They also possesses an expansive hangar bay, capable of transporting a large number of Seraph fighters, Phantom dropships, or boarding craft - later, the Forward Unto Dawn and Aegis Fate would dock inside the vessel's launch bay.

Assault Carriers are also used as Flagships of Covenant Fleets, leading Covenant Fleets into battle. Though designed for planetary combat, they also excel at ship-to-ship combat, possessing pulse laser batteries, plasma torpedo launchers and at least one energy projector.

Background
Assault Carriers are larger than s and standard Carriers, and are more heavily armed than either of them. They are armed with at least one Energy Projector, as well as plasma torpedo launchers and pulse-lasers. They also possess gravity lifts, used for ferrying supplies and personnel from the ship to the planet's surface.

Two such crafts led the Prophet of Regret's Fleet to Earth, where they engaged the UNSC Home Fleet in orbit above Africa. One of these, carrying the Prophet himself, managed to penetrate Earth's orbital defenses. The second was attempting to follow, but was subsequently destroyed by the Master Chief.

The Prophet's Assault Carrier managed to flee to slipspace, as the UNSC looked likely to recapture the captured city of New Mombasa, dragging the along its slipspace wake, leading to a second Halo ring.

Another Assault Carrier was later captured by Rtas 'Vadum and the Sangheili, and became the flagship of the Fleet of Retribution, leading it to Earth in pursuit of a surviving Flood Ship, arriving in time to glass the infected area of the planet. The Shadow of Intent and its escorting Cruisers joined forces with the remnants of the UNSC Navy to launch a joint attack on the Covenant remnant at the Ark, destroying their Fleet and providing a distraction while ground forces engaged the Loyalists that had landed. It later evacuated the UNSC and Sangheili personnel and returned to Earth for a short time before returning to Sangheilios.

Armament
As some of the larger ships in the Covenant Fleets are often used as fleet flagships, it is necessary for them to be heavily armed. Assault Carriers possess energy projectors which are powerful enough to cut through UNSC capital ships  on its ventral and dorsal surfaces. They also possess pulse-laser turrets used for intercepting UNSC missiles and fighters, and plasma torpedoes for engaging in ship-to-ship combat and assaulting planetary defenses.

Assault Carriers are also equipped with at least one gravity lift, capable of ferrying troops, personnel, vehicles and equipment to the surface of a planet quickly. They also possess a large main hangar, capable of carrying myriad Seraphs and Banshee fighter crafts, Phantom dropships and boarding crafts, or at least two UNSC Frigates. In addition, Assault Carriers possess the ability to launch Drop Pods, tactically delivering Sangheili warriors into areas without resorting to bulky and obvious dropships.

Characteristics



 * Assault Carriers, like the vast majority of other Covenant ships, are characterized by their bulbous silhouette and pale white/blue hull. However, they also tend to be characterized by their unique swollen and bulbous "hooked" bow section that is frequently characterized to be similar to the head of a whale.


 * Rather than possessing multiple smaller hangar bays, like smaller cruisers, Assault Carriers use a single, gargantuan hangar bay for storage of fighters, dropships, boarding craft and small capital ships, at least 500 meters long, 320 meters wide and 120 meters high.


 * For propulsion, Assault Carriers rely on large deuterium-tritium fusion reactors, housed in cavernous chambers, which power the ships vital systems, as well as the three aft-mounted thrusters that propel the ship, capable of operating in a vacuum or in an atmospheric environment.


 * The UNSC Frigate Forward Unto Dawn is small enough to fit into the Shadow of Intent's carrier. This means, that the Assault Carrier could easily be used to carry smaller Covenant ships.

Known Assault Carriers

 * Shadow of Intent


 * Prophet of Regret's Carrier and escort carrier


 * Ascendant Justice (presumed)

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 drops off several Elite minors and one Elite major, 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 entire 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 Scarabs. This was demonstrated by the Prophet of Regret during the First Battle of Earth, when he utilized a Scarab during the battle against UNSC forces in New Mombasa.

Trivia

 * In an earlier plan of Halo 2, there was supposed to be a level where the Master Chief boards an Assault Carrier and destroys it from the inside called Covenant ship.
 * In the current US Navy, the term "Assault Carrier" refers to the Amphibious Assault Ship, used to transport troops via water and offload them via hovercraft or helicopter.
 * There were over 500 Assault Carriers seen over Delta Halo joining High Charity when Spartan-117 killed the Prophet of Regret.