Cutter

A gunboat is the smallest classification of warship in the UNSC Navy. Most popularly used by planetary defence forces as patrol ships, gunboats are recognised for their high speed, light armaments, and inability to operate away from a naval base for long.

Characteristics
An evolution of early human combat vessels dating back to the Interplanetary War, gunboats generally have a tonnage that lies between 500 and 15,000 metric tons, with a length that rarely exceeds 175 metres. Their crew requirements are basic, with anywhere between 7 and 30 individuals able to operate these craft at ideal levels. Their most unique feature is that they are unable to handle interstellar travel for long; even by the end of the Human-Covenant War, most gunboats in service were still not equipped with slipspace drives. This was because there was either not enough space to mount even a miniaturised system, or due their weak frame being easily strained by a handful of jumps. Thanks to this weakness, they are strictly system patrol or response craft, and require a mothership to move them away from their home system.

The lack of space means that gunboats are poorly-armed and armoured, even when compared to the smallest of corvettes. Their typical armament is composed of a handful of guided missile cells, point defence guns, and light naval autocannons. The few that are equipped with a spinal cannon are unable to match the energy that is given off by a single shot of a medium naval coilgun mounted on UNSC cruisers. They are also unable to carry much in the way of consumables and fuel, and so their patrols are much more restricted than those of larger military ships. Their small size, however, does make them difficult to detect, and their speed can easily evade most forms of incoming fire. Most gunboats, regardless, are rated for atmosphere, where they are able to support ground forces with close naval fire support. This makes them useful at defeating fighters and screening the battlefield of incoming projectiles, although they can only harass larger warships in groups.

Gunboats have very, very limited passenger facilities, which rarely accommodates more than fifty men in cramped conditions. Few have a hangar bay at all, instead directly docking at spaceports to exchange crewmen. Those lucky enough to have a hangar are unable to carry fighters; only shuttlecraft and small transports. Most have a cargo bay, however, and they are often expected to participate in resupply operations or personnel exchanges.

Fast attack craft
More of an ad hoc designation than a true classification, fast attack craft are similar in size to gunboats, and so lack an onboard slipspace drive. However, they have traded their lighter armaments with oversized weapon systems, which allows them to significantly punch far above their weight. This added mass means that they must sacrifice other elements of their design to retain their speed, such as cargo and hangar bays, active defence systems, and armour.

Fast attack craft are favoured by independent human factions that lack an established shipbuilding industry and/or have limited manpower at their disposal, such as insurrectionist cells, small colonial polities, and rogue UNSC units. As a result, most ships manufactured by these parties tend to be poorly built and unreliable, unable to withstand the stresses of battle before breaking apart or being damaged enough to withdraw.