Razor-class strike prowler

The Razor-class strike prowler was a line of high-performance, heavily-armed stealth corvette used during the Human-Covenant War.

Human-Covenant War
However, as the 2530s pressed on, the Razor-class found itself being moved away from priority postings, and more into secondary scout roles closer to the Human Sphere. There were multiple reasons for this - their extensive use against the Covenant meant that they were proving too vulnerable to their detection techniques, and upgrades to rectify this were now difficult thanks to its vintage. There was also the fact that they needed far too much support for sustained operation. Although the need for prowlers of any sort was still great, slowly the Razor-class was being pressed more and more into auxiliary roles - general patrol, recovery of intelligence packages, and tracking down of ships violating the Cole Protocol. In fact, the only reason ONI retained the class was because no modern prowler could replace them in the strike role, which saw them remaining in service.

Although ONI finally began to phase out the Razor-class in 2544, when their replacements of the were introduced, most were not simply sent to the scrappers. Instead, they were passed on to various military organizations; the UNSC Aerospace Force procured them for orbital defense and tenders for slipspace probes, while the Navy used them exclusively as infiltration and exfiltration craft for operatives.

Role
The Razor-class prowler stands out in ONI's prowler arsenal for its unusually-heavy attack role, one that prioritized ambush and ground support. The high performance of its machinery and its rather small size allowed it to quickly slip into a planet's atmosphere to rain hell on targets, and then quickly leave to evade any retaliation. Alternatively, it could deploy a strike team, complete with a small assortment of light vehicles and a pair of Pelicans, directly onto the ground. Both of these missions were exceedingly high-risk, and as a result the Razor-class suffered some of the highest hull losses of any prowler in the Human-Covenant War.

The Razor-class could and did participate in more conventional scouting missions, where it glided through space on auxiliary baffled engines in a low-powered state. Their speed meant they could get away if detected, which early on made them ideal for regions where detection was likely. Sustained operations were rare, as these prowlers had a noticeable lack of endurance that required them to operate relatively close to home or near a resupply point such as another prowler. Its usefulness as an electronic warfare platform were also questionable, although it was able to misdirect Covenant formations when it operated with a drone or satellite contingent.

The Razor-class also made an effective q-ship. As an offshoot of the earlier Sloop-class, it bore a resemblance to most civilian yachts of the Insurrection, and served as bait for unaware or ill-informed pirates and outlaws. Once engagement was certain, it was often far too late for the attackers to evade the subsequent intercept and boarding.

Block I
The first production series, the Block I craft were introduced during a transition in prowler doctrine. Though they now had more sophisticated stealth systems than their predecessors, there was still a need to blend in with civilian traffic; as a result, they were visually similar to the contemporary Astute-class yachts. Moreover, their early construction meant that they were fitted with first-generation Io-3 cold fusion reactors, which proved both problematic to maintain and inefficient during stealth conditions.

All Block Is were refitted starting in 2527 with modern stealth systems, an upgraded fusion drive that now incorporated a retractable baffler over the engine arrays, and exchanged the original fusion reactor, among others.


 * UNSC Razor

Block IA
Never intended to be produced, the Block IAs were created during an odd scenario where the final 14 prowlers had their construction suspended due to political interference. Left as hulks in their drydocks above Mars, they were used as a source of spare parts for their active sisters, with at least three being scrapped over this time. Eventually, the incomplete state of the remaining hulls allowed ONI to instead complete them as test vessels, using some of the parts and systems would be used in the later.

Like the preceding Block Is, the Block IAs received a refit in 2527 that slightly modernized them.

Block II
Beginning production in 2528, the Block IIs were created in response to the Human-Covenant War, and more specifically as a response to the success they had during the attack on Zhoist. These had a few changes, owning to lessons learned during recent operations: the hull was lengthened somewhat to incorporate more fuel, the keel armor was strengthened to resist ground fire, and an improved scanning suite was added. Most of the other changes were made to simplify production, as the UNSC desperately needed more prowlers to raid the Covenant's logistics.