: There was a comment about the tiny size of the CRS-class Covenant Light
: Cruisers known before Halo 4 but featured prominently in it.

: I added to the discussion with making a comparison chart of just how small
: those cruisers are to common Covenant craft. At only about 6
: Covenant-sized decks high, those cruisers are pretty small considering
: they're still the length of the Star Trek I to VI movie-era USS
: Enterprise-A with 21-human-sized decks:

I wonder why 343I decided to go with a miniaturized CCS-class cruiser instead of bringing back the SDV-class corvette.

Also, why are they calling the CRS class a "light cruiser"? UNSC Naval nomenclatures is apparently the same as that of modern navies, but calling the CRS class a cruiser defies standard naval ship classification schemes. I mean, just look at the size different between the CRS and SDV classes:

By conventional classification standards, the CRS class is a small patrol vessel or a light corvette at best. It has essentially no carrying capacity for smaller craft (except maybe a couple of Banshees) and would have minimal offensive capability, and they obviously lack shields. For comparison's sake, let's look at some of the US Navy's ship classes and how they compare:

Nimitz-class carrier
Length: 333 meters
Displacement: 100,000 tons

Iowa-class battleship
Length: 270 meters
Displacement: 45,000+ tons

Ticonderoga-class cruiser
Length: 173 meters
Displacement: 9600 tons

Arleigh Burke-class destroyer
Length: 155 meters
Displacement: 8400 tons

Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate
Length: 136 meters
Displacement: 4100 tons

Littoral Combat Ship
Length: 115 meters (Freedom-class), 127.4 meters (Independence-class)
Displacement: 3000 tons (Freedom-class, 3100 tons (Independence-class)
Note: The two classes of "littoral combat ships" are our equivalent of a corvette. However, they are on the larger end of the corvette scale. The Russian Navy's Steregushchy class is 104 meters long and has a displacement of 1800 to 2200 tons.

Cyclone-class patrol ship
Length: 55 meters
Displacement: 331 tons
Note: The Cyclone class can possibly be considered a light corvette, being similar to the Russian Tarantul-class, which is 56 meters long and has a displacement of 480 tons.

So yeah, the CRS class is not a cruiser. Whoever came up with the thing was just being lazy, recycling the CCS class design but making it only one-fifth the overall length. If they wanted some new class of tiny patrol craft, they should have created something new and interesting. Otherwise, I would have gone with the SDV class to have some smaller support vessels to accompany the CCS class, as well as provide visual variety.