This list of aircraft carriers contains aircraft carriers listed alphabetically by name. An aircraft carrier is a warship with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft, that serves as a seagoing airbase.
Included in this list are ships which meet the above definition and had an official name (italicized) or designation (non-italicized), regardless of whether they were or were not ordered, laid down, completed, or commissioned.
Not included in this list are the following:
Aircraft cruisers, also known as aviation cruisers, cruiser-carriers, flight deck cruisers, and hybrid battleship-carriers, which combine the characteristics of aircraft carriers and surface warfare ships, because they primarily operated helicopters or floatplanes and did not act as a floating airbase. Examples include the British s, Japanese s, French cruiser , Soviet s, and Italian s. Vessels which meet the criteria of an aircraft carrier but are named as cruisers (or destroyers, etc.) for political or treaty reasons such as the Russian s or British s are included however. Amphibious assault ships, also known as commando carriers, assault carriers, helicopter carriers, landing helicopter assault ships, landing helicopter docks, landing platform docks, and landing platform helicopters. Although they have flight decks and look like aircraft carriers, they primarily operate helicopters and do not act as a floating airbase. Examples include the US Wasp-class assault ships, Brazilian NAM Atlântico (A140), and French . Landing craft carriers, such as Japanese and , which were modified amphibious landing ships, with limited aircraft carrier capabilities. Drone carriers Catapult aircraft merchantmen, merchant ships which carried cargo and an aircraft catapult (no flight deck). Escort carriers, usually converted merchant ships, see separate List of escort carriers by country. Merchant aircraft carriers, cargo-carrying merchant ships with a full flight deck. Seaplane tenders and seaplane carriers, because they could not land aircraft. Submarine aircraft carriers, because they had no flight deck and could not land their aircraft.
"In commission" denotes the period that the ship was officially in commission with the given name for the given country as an aircraft carrier as defined above.
Numbers of aircraft carriers by country The table below does not include submarine aircraft carriers, seaplane tenders, escort carriers, merchant aircraft carriers, helicopter carriers, or amphibious assault ships. It includes ships under construction, but not ships that never got past the planning stage.
+Number of fleet aircraft carriers by operating nation Country In service Inactive Decommissioned Underconstruction Nevercompleted Total Argentina 0 0 2 0 0 2 Australia 0 0 3 0 0 3 Brazil 0 0 2 0 0 2 Canada 0 0 3 0 0 3 China 30 0 1 0 4 France 1 0 7 1 8 17 Germany 0 0 0 0 77 India 20 2 0 0 4 Indonesia 10 0 0 0 1 Italy 20 1 0 2 5 Japan 2 0 20 0 8 30 Netherlands 0 0 2 0 0 2 Russia 0 1 4 0 2 7 Spain 1 0 2 0 1 4 Turkey 0 0 0 1 0 1 2 0 38 0 15 55 United States 110 55 3 12 81Total251141655228
List of countries that have operated aircraft carriers
Argentina Retired: +Light CarriersPhotoShipClassSerial numberCommission DateDecommission DateFate(former HMS Warrior)V-119591969Scrapped in 1971 (former HMS Venerable)V-219691999Scrapped in 1999
Australia Retired: +Light Fleet CarriersPhotoShipClassSerial numberCommission DateDecommission DateFateR-1719481958Recommissioned as a troop transport(former )R-2119551982ScrappedHMAS Vengeance ( on loan from the Royal Navy.)R-7119521955Given back to the Royal Navy in 1955.
Brazil Retired: +Fleet CarrierPhotoShipClassSerial numberCommission DateDecommission DateFate (former French carrier )A-1220002017Scuttled in 2023. +Light CarrierPhotoShipClassSerial numberCommission DateDecommission DateFateA-1119602001Scrapped in 2004
Canada Retired:
+Light CarriersPhotoShipClassSerial numberCommission DateDecommission DateFate( on loan to Royal Canadian Navy)R-3119461948Given back to the Royal Navy in 1948. (HMS Magnificent on loan to the Royal Canadian Navy.)None19461956Given back to the Royal Navy in 1956.None19571970Scrapped in 1971 in Taiwan.
China
Active: +PhotoShipClassSerial numberCommission Date (former unfinished Soviet carrier Varyag)/Type 001CV-162012Type 002CV-172019Type 003CV-182025 Under construction: Type 004: a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier under construction.
France
+ActiveShipClassSerial numberCommission DateR-912001
Planned: : a planned nuclear-powered aircraft carrier +RetiredPhotoShipClassSerial numberCommission DateDecommission DateFate5-6319271948Turned into a floating barracks and scrapped in 1967Dixmude (former )None19451951Sunk as a target in 1966(former HMS Colossus)R-9519461974Scrapped in 1978 (former )R-9619511963Scrapped in 1964 (former )R-9719531960Scrapped in 1960R-9819611997Scrapped in 2009R-9919632000Given to Brazil in 2000 to become the , scuttled in 2023 Never completed: : -class sloop planned for conversion but not completed Conquérante: Vaillante-class sloop planned for conversion but not completed
: carrier construction cancelled in 1940 : carrier plan cancelled in 1940 : attack carrier development cancelled in 1961 PH 75: projected two nuclear-powered helicopter carrier program during the 1970s Bretagne: STOVL aircraft carrier Provence: STOVL aircraft carrier PA 2: modified version of Thales UK/BMT design of the British Queen Elizabeth class (formerly CVF).
Germany
Never completed: : planned conversion of passenger ship from German shipyard to aircraft carrier. Cancelled in 1918. : carrier. Launched but not completed. Construction work stopped in 1943. Flugzeugträger B: Graf Zeppelin-class carrier cancelled partly constructed in 1939. Flugzeugträger C: Planned Graf Zeppelin-class carrier cancelled in 1938.Carl Dreessen: "Die deutsche Flottenrüstung." Mittler & Sohn. Hamburg 2000. p. 101 Flugzeugträger D: Planned Graf Zeppelin-class carrier cancelled in 1938. : conversion of partly-built . Work stopped in 1943 and not resumed. : conversion of the transport ship cancelled at the design stage in November 1942 due to insurmountable problems. : Lead ship of the Jade class. Converted from the passenger liner . Laid down in 1934 but never completed. Sunk on 2 May 1943. Elbe: Converted from the passenger liner . Laid down in 1934 but never completed. Survived the war but was seized by Great Britain on 20 June 1946. German aircraft carrier II: was a proposed conversion project for the incomplete . The ship was laid down in November 1938 and lay incomplete in the Arsenal de Lorient shipyard when Germany invaded France in May 1940. In 1942, Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine decided to convert the cruiser into an auxiliary aircraft carrier with a capacity for twenty-three fighters and dive bombers. Work ceased in February 1943, however, due to concerns with the ship's design, a severe shortage of material and labor, and the threat of Allied bombing raids. In 1945, the ship was returned to France and was eventually completed as an anti-aircraft cruiser in 1956 by the French Navy
India
+ActivePhotoShipClassSerial numberCommission Date(former )R-332013R-112022 Planned: : 65,000-ton carrier. Yet to start, planned to enter service in 2030. It will be conventionally powered. +RetiredPhotoShipClassSerial numberCommission DateDecommission DateFate (former )R-4919611997Scrapped in 2014 (former )R-2219872017Scrapped in 2021 in Alang. Longest serving aircraft carrier in the world (58 years). Indonesia Active: +PhotoShipClassSerial numberCommission Date1002026
Italy Active: +PhotoShipClassSerial numberCommission Date5502008 landing helicopter dock TriesteL98902024 +RetiredPhotoShipClassSerial numberCommission DateDecommission DateFateaircraft-carrying cruiser55119852024Transferred to Indonesian Navy, 2026
Never completed: (1927) (converted liner Augustus, not completed as carrier) – Sunk to block Genoa harbour 5 October 1944 (1926) (converted liner Roma) – work stopped 1943, sunk 1945. BU 1951–1952
Japan +ActivePhotoShipClassSerial numberCommission DateDDH-1832015DDH-1842017 +RetiredPhotoShipClassCommission DateDecommission DateFate19221947Scrapped19421945Scrapped19421945Scrapped19441946Scrapped Sunk: (IJN) (1921) – sunk, Battle of Midway, June 1942
(1925) – sunk, Battle of Midway, June 1942 (1931) – sunk, Battle of the Eastern Solomons, August 1942 (1935) – sunk, Battle of Midway, June 1942 (1937) – sunk, Battle of Midway, June 1942
(1935) – sunk, Battle of the Coral Sea, May 1942 (1936) – sunk, Battle of Leyte Gulf, October 1944
(1936) – seaplane tender from 1934 to 1942, rebuilt as light carrier; sunk, Battle of Leyte Gulf, October 1944 (1937) – sunk, Battle of Leyte Gulf, October 1944
(1939) – sunk by U.S. submarine , Battle of Philippine Sea, June 1944 (1939) – sunk, Battle of Leyte Gulf, October 1944
(1939) – sunk, Battle of Philippine Sea, June 1944 (1943) – sunk by U.S. submarine , Battle of Philippine Sea, June 1944
(1943) – used as anti-aircraft platform; sunk in July 1945 (1943) – sunk by U.S. submarine , December 1944 (1944) – sunk by U.S. submarine , November 1944
Hōshō, Jun'yō, Katsuragi, and Ryūhō survived the war. These were scrapped by 1948.
Never completed: (IJN)
Amagi (not completed); damaged beyond economical repair in the Great Kantō earthquake of September 1923, scrapped 1924
5x Improved , project G-15 (cancelled 1944)
Hull 5002, 3rd unit of Unryū class (cancelled 1943); materials used for Shinano conversion , 5th unit of Unryū class (not completed); dismantled post-war Hull 5005, 6th unit of Unryū class (cancelled 1943); materials used for Shinano conversion , 7th unit of Unryū class (not completed); sunk as weapon test target and scrapped postwar , 8th unit of Unryū class (not completed); dismantled post-war Kurama, 9th unit of Unryū class (cancelled 1944) – heavy cruiser conversion (not completed); dismantled post-war
Netherlands +Retired Photo Ship Class Pennant number Commission Date Decommission Date Fate Hr.Ms. Karel Doorman QH1 1946 1948 Returned to the Royal Navy Hr.Ms. Karel Doorman R63 1948 1968 Sold to the Argentine Navy
Russia (and USSR)
The Russian Navy was reestablished in December 1991, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union (USSR). Most Soviet aircraft carriers were transferred over to Russia (with the exception of Varyag which was transferred to Ukraine. Ulyanovsk was scrapped before the Soviet Union was dissolved).
Inactive:
(Russia: 1991–present / USSR: 1985–1991); Undergoing overhaul and repairs since 2017.
Proposed: Project 23000 aircraft carrier Project 11430E aircraft carrier Project 23000KM aircraft carrier Retired:
(Russia: 1991–1993, USSR: 1972–1991); converted to a theme park (later hotel) in China (Russia: 1991–1993, USSR: 1975–1991); converted to a theme park in China (Russia: 1991–1993, USSR: 1978–1991); scrapped (Russia: 1991–1995, USSR: 1982–1991); sold to India, modified, rebuilt by India and renamed
Never completed: Project 1153 Orel
Varyag (not commissioned) – to Ukraine (1991); rebuilt, tested and commissioned by the Chinese PLAN as Liaoning Ulyanovsk class (not commissioned) – scrapped (1991)
Spain Active: +PhotoShipClassSerial numberCommission DateL612010
Retired: +PhotoShipClassSerial numberCommission DateDecommission DateFateR01197619892002R-11198820132017
Never completed: Spanish conversion for refloated Italian heavy cruiser Trieste, cancelled in 1951.
Thailand Role changed: (1996)* Commissioned in 1997, but by 1999, only one used AV-8S Matador/Harrier was still operable due to lack of spare parts and age. Since 2006 is solely operated as a helicopter carrier.
Turkey Active:
Under construction: MUGEM-class aircraft carrier
United Kingdom
Active: , STOVL ship of 80,600 tonnes
Retired: (1916) – scrapped 1946 (1916) – decommissioned 1945