Nanolaminate

Nanolaminate plating provides both the aesthetic and protective functions of the Covenant.

Nanolaminate hull plating is the most common form of battle plating found on the Covenant's warships. It is typically purplish in color, although the CAS-class assault carrier has a pale white-blue hull and Kig-Yar vessels are generally bluish-black in color. Nanolaminate plating was noted for causing the hulls of Covenant vessels to possess an odd, opalescent-like shine. The plating is very strong and heat resistant, with the support of energy shielding allowing Covenant ships to take more damage. The amount of nanolaminate plating applied to each ship depends on the class, though CSO-class supercarriers have well over thirty meters of armor plating. As of 2525, nanolaminate plating is not used in any human construction.

It is likely that Covenant dropships, such as the Type-52 Phantom, or assault platforms, such as the Type-47 Scarab, are covered with nanolaminate hull plating.

Characteristics

Defensive capabilities

A CPV-class destroyer collides with the Spirit of Fire, with the former vessel taking little damage.

The hull plating allows ships to be resilient to most UNSC weaponry. UNSC point-defense guns are not powerful enough to do significant damage to the plating, Archer missiles prove to be very effective against the unshielded hull of a Covenant vessel causing the ship to become very vulnerable following the resulting explosions of the missiles. Magnetic Accelerator Cannons are often used to disable and destroy Covenant vessels after the energy shielding fails, being powerful enough to pierce the nanolaminate hull plating of most ships with a single round. A single pack of C-12 shaped charges can easily puncture a large hole through the hull of a Covenant cruiser. A Covenant cruiser is capable of taking a direct hit from a mass driver at near point-blank range with only minor structural damage done to the nanolaminate plating, but a second hit in the same spot was capable of piercing the vessel.

However, Covenant weaponry is more effective against nanolaminate plating. The CSO-class supercarrier Ascendant Justice, one of the most powerful vessels in the Covenant fleet, was heavily damaged by a single plasma turret torpedo, with several layers of the armor plating boiling away.

The nanolaminate plating is also durable against direct collisions with other vessels. A CPV-class heavy destroyer took negligible damages after a direct collision with the UNSC Spirit of Fire, with its energy shields seemingly not active. Although during the Second Battle of Requiem, a RCS-class armored cruiser equipped with energy shields, one of the former Covenant's most armored vessels, was obliterated after it endured a collision with the UNSC Infinity, with seemingly no damage done to the Infinity.

Heat resilience

The nanolaminate plating is very heat resistant, allowing Covenant vessels to enter extreme atmospheres or absorb the long-range damage from human nuclear weapons. Upon entering the gas giant Threshold's atmosphere shield-less, the hull of Ascendant Justice heated to three hundred degrees Celsius, with no actual structural damage done to the ship. Only when the ship reached temperatures of over seventeen hundred degrees Celsius did minor hull tearing and conduit melting occur. However, at such high temperatures, the superstructure of the vessel becomes considerably softened.

Trivia

The shield used by the Covenant's Mgalekgolo soldiers appears to be made up of a similar alloy.

Gallery

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  Renders of the CRS-class light cruiser, with its hull quite visible.

• Reach - Supercarrier.png

  A render of a CSO-class supercarrier, armored with over 30 meters of nanolaminate plating.

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  An RCS-class armored cruiser is destroyed after the Infinity collides with it.

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  The war-torn nanolaminate plating of a CCS-class battlecruiser.

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  Covenant space fighters, like the Seraph, were armored with nanolaminate plating.