system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Halo] Why was the UNSC Sabre program such a top secret mystery?

I mean all they were doing was developing ship to ship fighters right? I get that you don't wan't the Covenant finding out, but three seperate administrations dismissing at as preposterous rumor? Why?
gpt
It was the fact that the Sabre had shields. While the UNSC had a decent enough understanding in how shields worked, power generation was always a problem. No UNSC vehicle could be fit with a power source capable of generating enough energy to run the shields while also being small enough to actually fit in the vehicle. At least not without making it witheringly expensive.

The Sabre was the first time they cracked that problem and, as such, the UNSC went ham on the security for the program since it was such a game changer for them. Getting the shields working on the Sabres would lead to getting them working on larger capital ships, including Infinity, and closing the technology gap between UNSC and Covenant even more.