SPEARPOINT Program

The SPEARPOINT Program began during the Human-Covenant War, as an attempt to enhance the UNSC’s operational range and force projection capabilities and to operate behind Covenant lines. By now the Covenant had glassed most of the Outer Colonies and the brass recognized the need to expand their options beyond defensive engagements and be able to strike the Covenant behind their lines. SPARTANs were well suited to the task but they were too few and valuable to waste on conventional missions and ODSTs would not suffice either. Christened by its objective to be the "tip of the spear", SPEARPOINT was approved and in 2531 SPEARPOINT was launched under the oversight of NAVSPECWAR and ONI.

The project called for elite troops who can operate independently in hostile territory with little intel for extended periods of time without support. Due to the high-echelon nature of SPEARPOINT, the candidates were chosen from a select pool of soldiers deemed trustworthy. The nature of the program's operational objective made ODSTs suitable candidates for the program and they recruited roughly one hundred Orbital Drop Shock Troopers for the job. The projects deemed it necessary that the candidates be augmented using procedures based on those of the ORION Project but refined with thirty-five years of development. The new force of NAVSPECWAR operators were codenamed SPEARs.

In 2532 Colonel Carrack, the ONI supervisor who was placed in charge, deployed the SPEARs on several test missions in order to test their effectiveness in the field. Deployed as part of Operation ARGUS, and operation headed by Section 1 to deploy observation probes within Covenant occupied space, on occupied worlds or enemy planets in order to monitor their movements and troop deployments.

Engaged in Operation ORION SPEAR.