The four Pok-pattern beam lasers coordinate fire using two dedicated auger arrays to coordinate fire and rapidly target dozens of targets in quick succession, a useful feature during suppression operations on Covenant worlds. In addition, in rare cases the sensor arrays of these ships subject to aberrant mutations during fabrication that make them appear friendly to Forerunner defense protocols. The control coils of CRS-class light cruisers require careful fine-tuning to prevent disorientation and hallucination when operating at full power. One notable difference is that the CRS-class (at least those used by Jul 'Mdama's Covenant) bears green lights, as opposed to the white-blue lighting on the CCS class. Resembling a luminous manta ray, the CRS is essentially a smaller, weaker version of the CCS-class battlecruiser, with the Zanar-pattern light cruiser originally spawning as a stable mutation of the class' Elefen and Ket design patterns. As with other small attack craft employed by various Covenant fleets, CRS cruisers didn't have permanent crew quarters, instead rotating fresh crew members on between missions. When the Prophets took their Procurator-type ships and fled Covenant space in the wake of the Great Schism, they held many light cruisers whose crews remained loyal with them. They regarded escorting Executor-type ships and their disgraced crews such as the CPV-class heavy destroyer as a more distasteful assignment, and could never be relied on to do more than their basic duties. Crews of CRS cruisers generally regarded serving aboard one as a stepping stone to more glorious service aboard the Covenant's Examiner ships, such as ORS-class heavy cruisers, and would take risks during combat to prove their worth in hopes of reassignment. After the war, CRS-class cruisers became the backbones of fleets owned by Covenant remnants, serving in combat roles against humanity and the Swords of Sanghelios.

While classified as 'light cruisers' by the UNSC, the Covenant intended them to fill a role more analogous to police cutters to patrol inhabited star systems, conducting routine inspections and enforcing travel laws.

The CRS-class light cruiser is a Covenant capital warship classification.

Crs class light cruiser