Carrier

A carrier, represented by the hull classification symbol CV, is a group of naval capital ships used by human armed forces such as the UNSC Navy. Made up of some of the largest vessels in a fleet, carriers differ from spatial combatants in that they rely on immense wings of space fighters and ground forces as their main form of striking power.

Characteristics
Among the largest warships in service, at least by raw dimensions, carriers have a number of unique characteristics that brings them more in line with transports rather than traditional warships. They consist of some of the UNSC's largest vessels, and are at least 700 meters in length and five million tons in mass. Most of their volume is devoted to hangar bays used to service dozens if not hundreds of strikecraft, making them surprising light and swift for their size. Most have minimal armor, few weapons, and powerful engines which further contributes to this. Most protective systems or armaments are not required nor it is not expected for them to clash with another opponent. Instead, they sit on the outskirts of the enemy's engagement range and launch their fighters to attack them. While this method of indirect attack is found on other classifications of warship, but none can match the swarms that they can deploy.

Initially, most carriers in the UNSC's history were specialized vessels, and were essentially a massive mobile hangar bay that bristled with anti-aircraft weaponry. Very few had anti-ship weapons and armor, as without opponents with similar vessels, the only threats they had were cloaked weapons platforms. This started to change since the 2400s, as the proliferation of Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engines made it far more likely that they would need to defend themselves against enemy spatial combatants. As a result, modern carriers are significantly better-protected than their older predecessors, with some of the largest being armed and armored well enough to supplement as battleships.