The UNSC Prowler is a Corvette[1] classification within the United Nations Space Command. They were used exclusively by the Office of Naval Intelligence, and were often crewed by select ONI crews.[2]
This is most probably the UNSC equivalent of the Covenant Stealth Corvette.
Role
As per its namesake, it is used to gather electronic intelligence, and its primary role is to stay hidden while safely gathering such intelligence, not to charge into battle, as that would invariably be an irreversibly fatal tactic. Because of its tactical value and potential to change the outcome of any given combat situation, every UNSC Battlegroup has at least one Prowler assigned to its ranks[3].
The Prowler's only combat role, beside active combat monitoring and recording, is discreetly laying minefields of stealthed nuclear HORNET mines in orbital regions. Enemy ships that unknowingly enter these minefields can be destroyed by a single Prowler, allowing the remaining of the UNSC forces to move in and finish off the survivors with MAC strikes and Archer missiles. This stratagem allowed Battle Group Stalingrad to wage a short but devastating battle against the Covenant at Onyx, destroying significantly more ships than their own number, an extremely rare outcome among UNSC-Covenant engagements.
However, Prowlers are also equipped with "minimal weapons systems," which include two or more pulse lasers. It is unknown whether these lasers were retrofitted after contact with the Covenant and reverse-engineering their technology, or whether they were developed using pre-Covenant technologies by UNSC scientists.
UNSC Prowlers are based upon Submarines. Submarines are naval craft capable of operating for an extended period of time underwater and are built with an emphasis on stealth.
A modern submarine is a multi-role platform. It can conduct both overt and covert operations. In peacetime it can act as a deterrent as well as for surveillance operations and information gathering.
In wartime a submarine can carry out a number of missions including:
- Surveillance and information gathering
- Communication of data
- Landing of Special Operations Forces
- Attack of land targets
- Protection of task forces and merchant shipping
- Denial of sea areas to an enemy
Stealth Systems
- Ablative baffles
- Active Camouflage
- Counter-electronic systems
- Stealth Ablative Coating
- Texture bufferers
Known ships
- UNSC Apocalypso
- UNSC Applebee
- UNSC Circumference-destroyed
- UNSC Dusk
- UNSC Lark
- UNSC Point of No Return
- UNSC Razor's Edge
- UNSC Tokyo Rules
Trivia
- Two ONI Prowlers are believed to be featured in the Halo: Combat Evolved multiplayer map Boarding Action.
- It is quite ironic that there is a Brute land vehicle with the same name.
Sources
- ^ Halo: The Fall of Reach pg. 281
- ^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, page 162
- ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, page 329