Trafalgar-class carrier

The Trafalgar-class carrier was a class of command carriers (informally known by the public and media as 'supercarriers') operated by the UNSC Navy between 2547 and 2604. At 6,120m in length and displacing nearly twenty six million tons, vessels of the class were the largest ships ever commissioned by the UNSC Navy, as well as the largest self-propelled human-made objects ever built. Construction of each ship took place above Reach in the Epsilon Eridani system, where their sheer size necessitated their construction be staggered over several years at various berths in orbit. Construction was slowed after New Carthage, an industrial colony supplying additional components, was glassed in December 2549, but all four ships were commissioned before Reach and its shipyards were themselves destroyed in August 2552. The need for a large class of carrier was identified the mid-2530s, as it became apparent that the UNSC would not be able to halt the Covenant advance into the inner colonies, and that existing UNSC ship classes were not effective against Covenant vessels.