system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Halo] Did the UNSC have any long-term strategy for winning the war against the Covenant?

It seems like there was no overarching strategy other than to tactically retreat and try to bloody the Covenant along the way. The war against the Covenant lasted over 25 years, but it doesn't seem like there was any sort of plan from UNSC HIGHCOM to regroup and attempt *some* kind of counteroffensive at the Covenant until Operation RED FLAG (where Spartans were supposed to be deployed to capture a prophet).

At no point was there a plan to send a prowler with a NOVA bomb to locate and destroy the Covenant homeworlds? At no point was there any kind of contingency? 

Were there any long-term plans beyond building *Infinity* and using it as a lifeboat?
gpt
Short answer: No.  There were long-shots, continuing investigations by ONI, and attempts to level the playing field through the use of Orbital Defense Platforms but humanity was doomed the moment the Covenant decided they didn't like the look of us.

Given another 5-10 years though, we might have been able to reverse engineer enough tech to turn the tide; and the discovery of the Engineers would have helped.