| rdfs:comment | - The UNSC Navy was a branch of the United Nations Space Command responsible for protecting UEG planets, citizens and territories from external threats, and supporting and facilitating expeditionary forces. The UNSC Navy could trace its history back to the formation of the UNSC itself in 2163, from which time it was a central pillar in all the UNSC's expeditionary conflicts including the Interplanetary War and the Insurrection. Although depleted to just a few thousand warships during the final years of the Human-Covenant War, the UNSC Navy, by the time of the Galactic War, was the largest armed force in the known galaxy by warships and expenditure.
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| abstract | - The UNSC Navy was a branch of the United Nations Space Command responsible for protecting UEG planets, citizens and territories from external threats, and supporting and facilitating expeditionary forces. The UNSC Navy could trace its history back to the formation of the UNSC itself in 2163, from which time it was a central pillar in all the UNSC's expeditionary conflicts including the Interplanetary War and the Insurrection. Although depleted to just a few thousand warships during the final years of the Human-Covenant War, the UNSC Navy, by the time of the Galactic War, was the largest armed force in the known galaxy by warships and expenditure. The Navy comprised the Active Fleet, which numbered approximately 100,000 warships and logistical vessels and roughly 620 million personnel, and the Navy Air Corps, formed of 2.65 million aircraft and 30 million active personnel. This was in addition to the Fleet Auxiliary, which in peace time operated a further 150,000 logistical and support vessels by rotating reserve personnel, and in times of war manned an additional 35,000 armed vessels. The Active fleet consisted of battleships, carriers, cruisers, amphibious assault ships, destroyers, frigates, corvettes, prowlers, and a range of miscellaneous support craft. The UNSC Navy maintained nine fleets prior to the Great War, although this shrank to just three under-strength units by 2552, and had swelled again to 16 fleets by 2564. The UNSC Navy maintained a strong presence in the core worlds, having several key installations, ports and ground garrisons on worlds such as Reach and Earth. Regional bases throughout the outer colonies gave the Navy the capability to protect and patrol Human space, as well as conduct exploration and armed deterrence into unclaimed or unknown territory. The Navy maintained some form of presence in every inhabited UNSC system, ranging from a single orbital sensor or defence platform for a low risk world, to a Task Force's home port for systems at high risk or with multiple inhabited worlds. The Navy's emphasis in the post-Great War period shifted from one solely of defence to a more balanced one focusing both on defensive and expeditionary warfare, with an enhanced amphibious capability said to be among the best in the known galaxy. Consequently, the Navy had a particularly close operational relationship with the UNSC Marine Corps, the UNSC's ground fighting expeditionary force.
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