Covenant starship classifications

The Covenant's starship classification system, like most of the hegemony's bureaucracy, is notoriously convoluted in structure. Rather than a unified tree that progressively categorizes vessels into more and more distinct groups, they utilize a number of overlaid policies that exist entirely independent of each other. At the time of its fracturing, all starships were organized within a few distinct systems.

Orders
Similar to human classification systems but on a more generalized level, Orders are organizational lists that catalogs all starships in the Covenant's ministerial fleets by the niches and fields that they best excel in. It primarily acts as a registry that archives the name, history, and relevant details of all ships commissioned by the Covenant, as well as those manned by the Sangheili and San'Shyuum since long before the Writ of Union. All this information is housed within a Forerunner reliquary known as the Unending Scroll located on High Charity itself. Smaller databases concerning regional units and ministerial fleets may also be backed up at smaller government outposts. While it was not entirely accurate, as transmission lag and bribery of its archivists meant that some ships were created and destroyed without ever being catalogued, it was reliable enough to be used by the High Council to plan naval expansions. Interestingly, many of its subdivisions make no difference between armed military craft and civilian starships, although there are a few that are restricted to the former.

The identified orders are:
 * Attack Ships, small, dedicated military craft too small to be granted a shipmaster's chair.
 * Bellators, which are general-use combat ships.
 * Compulsors, which are tithe-collection vessels that also spread the Covenant's religion.
 * Examiners, mighty ministry craft that lead fleets and search for artifacts.
 * Executioners, which are dedicated warships designed to bring nothing but death and destruction.
 * Guardians, civilian stations and ships that are devoted to the administrative and religious needs of the Holy Ecumene.
 * Procurators, dedicated support ships that fall outside of the militant ministries.
 * Sentinels, escort ships tasked with protecting their fleets through the use of their defensive systems.
 * Vestiges, obsolete starships that no longer have a use in the Covenant.

As an addition to this, some Covenant ships may have a role descriptor placed before their Order classification, which further narrows down their envisioned role and specific traits.
 * Anointed: This ship is capable of pursuing objectives without the aid of a fleet, carrying the necessary endurance and equipment to do so.
 * Blessed: This ship is not capable of faster-than-light transit, and is instead used for system defense.
 * Contrite: This is a multipurpose ship of the line, where it operates within a standard fleet formation and require support from other vessels within their unit. As a result, they tend to form the bulk of the Covenant's forces.
 * Divine: This ship has support functions, such as carrying fighters into battle or disrupting opponents with electronic warfare.
 * Ordained: This ship is not built to standard, being upgraded with a Forerunner artifact.
 * Pious: This ship is used for patrol, either escorting larger spacecraft or independently securing the spacelanes.
 * Reverent: This ship is used for reconnaissance, and has the equipment needed to search and unearth Forerunner artifacts.
 * Salvific: This denotes the ship is a dedicated warship and is suitable for siege operations. They are typically, though not always, armed with at least one energy projector.
 * Tenet: This denotes that the ship class is not intended for mass-production, and is instead only built in small quantities.
 * Virtuous: This denotes a ship that is designed to support ground forces, either directly as aerial artillery or by providing support capabilities.

Classes and patterns
In addition to order, ship production models are identified by their design pattern, specific to select assembly forges. Ships of broadly similar tonnage, design and role are sometimes grouped together into classes. Classes may encompass more than one design pattern, though in many cases the two categories are virtually synonymous until more than one variant of a core design is produced. An example of a class with more than one design pattern is the. Similar practices are followed with ground and air vehicles as well as other materiel, though they are not entirely consistent even between the ministries, some of which treat patterns and classes as synonymous. Outside the ministries, designation practices vary greatly, though since most ships are built using assembly forge technology, their classifications tend to follow similar trends.

UNSC enemy combatant classification system
Developed during the Human-Covenant War, the UNSC uses a letter-based designation system to identify Covenant ships, with a three-letter code followed by an approximation of the ship's class. Broadly speaking, modern Covenant ship classes are named after corresponding UNSC equivalents, whereas older or obsolete ship types are assigned designations from Earth's nautical history, e.g. carrack, caravel, or man-of-war. Some are given unique designations translated from their native equivalent, e.g. interdictor or voidcruiser.

Over time, it has become apparent that many of these categories are partly incorrect and do not always correspond to the Covenant's categorization systems. The system is not entirely consistent; it took some time for ONI to establish a solid pattern for the names, and at that point several "anomalous" designations had already become established. One of these artifacts is the use of "V" standing for "vessel", used in some of the earlier names; later codes would drop this part and focus solely on the ship's role. In addition, with multiple departments of ONI Section One busy cataloging Covenant hardware and vehicles, there were instances where multiple terminologies were already being used, and then one was preferred over the other. Some of the codes are also inaccurate or only broadly accurate, based on the roles in which the Covenant ships were first encountered, and may not reflect the role the Covenant has formally assigned them.


 * Carriers
 * CSO = Command, Support & Occupation
 * CAS = Command, Assault & Support
 * DDS = Direct Deployment & Support
 * DRS = Deployment, Rapid Support


 * Cruisers
 * ORS = Occupation, Reconnaissance, Stealth
 * RCS = Reconnaissance, Combat Support
 * CCS = Combat, Capital Support
 * CRS = Combat, Reconnaissance & Support


 * Destroyers
 * CPV = Capital Patrol Vessel
 * RPV = Reconnaissance & Patrol Vessel


 * Corvettes & Escorts
 * CAR = Combat, Attack & Reconnaissance
 * ADP = Auxiliary, Defense & Patrol
 * SDV = Stealth Deployment Vessel
 * DAV = Deployment & Assault Vessel
 * DAS = Diversion, Attack & Stealth


 * Strikecraft & Transports
 * CSX = Combat Strike fighter, Exoatmospheric capable
 * SSX = Space Supremacy fighter, Exoatmospheric capable
 * DX = Dropship, Exoatmospheric capable


 * Support Ships
 * DSC = Delivery / Support Capital
 * DCO = Delivery, Cargo & Ordnance
 * AAC = Armed Auxiliary, Cargo

External credit

 * Ajax 013 - for co-writing and concepting a number of Order groups and role designators.