An aircraft carrier is a warship designed to carry, launch, recover and support aircraft at sea, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities that allow it to serve as a mobile, seagoing airbase. Typically it is the capital ship of a fleet (known as a carrier battle group), as it allows a naval force to project seaborne air power far from national territory without depending on local airfields for the staging of aircraft operations. Since their inception in the early 20th century, aircraft carriers have evolved from wooden vessels used to deploy individual tethered reconnaissance balloons, to nuclear-powered supercarriers that carry dozens of fighters, strike aircraft, military helicopters, AEW&Cs and other types of aircraft such as UCAVs. While heavier fixed-wing aircraft such as airlifters, gunships and bombers have been launched from aircraft carriers, these aircraft do not often land on a carrier due to flight deck limitations.
The aircraft carrier, along with its onboard aircraft and defensive ancillary weapons, is the largest weapon system ever created. Due to their tactical prowess, mobility, autonomy and the variety of operational means, aircraft carriers are often the centerpiece of modern naval warfare, and have significant diplomatic influence in deterrence, command of the sea and air supremacy. Since the Second World War, the aircraft carrier has replaced the battleship in the role of flagship of a fleet, and largely transformed naval battles from gunfire to beyond-visual-range air strikes. In addition to tactical aptitudes, it has great strategic advantages in that, by sailing in international waters, it does not need to interfere with any territorial sovereignty and thus does not risk diplomatic complications or conflict escalation due to trespassing, and obviates the need for land use authorizations from third-party countries, reduces the times and transit logistics of aircraft and therefore significantly increases the time of availability on the combat zone.
Modern navies use several variants of the aircraft carrier which are sometimes categorized as sub-types of aircraft carriers and sometimes as distinct types of aviation-capable ships. Aircraft carriers may be classified according to the type of aircraft they carry and their operational assignments. Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, RN, former First Sea Lord (head) of the Royal Navy, has said, "To put it simply, countries that aspire to strategic international influence have aircraft carriers." Henry Kissinger, while United States Secretary of State, also said: "An aircraft carrier is 100,000 tons of diplomacy."
As of , there are 50 active aircraft carriers in the world operated by fifteen navies. The United States has 11 large nuclear-powered CATOBAR fleet carriers – each carrying around 80 fighters – the largest in the world, which, in 2015, had a total combined deck space over twice that of all other nations combined.
Types of carriers
General features Speed is a crucial attribute for aircraft carriers, as they need to be able to be deployed quickly anywhere in the world and have to be fast enough to evade detection and targeting from enemy forces. A high speed also increases the "wind over the deck", boosting the lift available for fixed-wing aircraft to carry fuel and ammunition. To evade nuclear submarines, the carriers should have a speed of more than . Aircraft carriers are among the largest types of warships due to their need for ample deck space. An aircraft carrier must be able to perform increasingly diverse mission sets. Diplomacy, power projection, quick crisis response force, land attack from the sea, sea base for helicopter and amphibious assault forces, anti-surface warfare (ASUW), defensive counter air (DCA), and humanitarian aid & disaster relief (HADR) are some of the missions the aircraft carrier is expected to accomplish. Traditionally an aircraft carrier is supposed to be one ship that can perform at least power projection and sea control missions. An aircraft carrier must be able to efficiently operate an air combat group. This means it should handle fixed-wing jets as well as helicopters. This includes ships designed to support operations of short-takeoff/vertical-landing (STOVL) jets.
Basic types Aircraft cruiser Amphibious assault ship and sub-types Anti-submarine warfare carrier Balloon carrier and balloon tenders Escort carrier Fleet carrier Flight deck cruiser Helicopter carrier Light aircraft carrier Seaplane tender and seaplane carriers Utility carrier: This type was mainly used in the US Navy, in the decade after World War 2 to ferry aircraft.
Some of the types listed here are not strictly defined as aircraft carriers by some sources.
By role
A fleet carrier is intended to operate with the main fleet and usually provides an offensive capability. These are the largest carriers capable of fast speeds. By comparison, escort carriers were developed to provide defense for convoys of ships. They were smaller and slower with lower numbers of aircraft carried. Most were built from mercantile hulls or, in the case of merchant aircraft carriers, were bulk cargo ships with a flight deck added on top. Light aircraft carriers were fast enough to operate with the main fleet but of smaller size with reduced aircraft capacity.
The Soviet aircraft carrier Admiral Kusnetsov was termed a "heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser". This was primarily a legal construct to avoid the limitations of the Montreux Convention preventing 'aircraft carriers' transiting the Turkish Straits between the Soviet Black Sea bases and the Mediterranean Sea. These ships, while sized in the range of large fleet carriers, were designed to deploy alone or with escorts. In addition to supporting fighter aircraft and helicopters, they provide both strong defensive weaponry and heavy offensive missiles equivalent to a guided-missile cruiser.
By configuration
Aircraft carriers today are usually divided into the following four categories based on the way that aircraft take off and land: Catapult-assisted take-off barrier-arrested recovery (CATOBAR): these carriers generally carry the largest, heaviest, and most heavily armed aircraft, although smaller CATOBAR carriers may have other limitations (weight capacity of aircraft elevator, etc.). All CATOBAR carriers in service today are nuclear-powered except the Fujian. Thirteen are in service: ten and one carrier in the United States, Fujian in China, and Charles de Gaulle in France. Short take-off barrier-arrested recovery (STOBAR): these carriers are generally limited to carrying lighter fixed-wing aircraft with more limited payloads. STOBAR carrier air wings, such as the Sukhoi Su-33 and future Mikoyan MiG-29K wings of are often geared primarily towards air superiority and fleet defense roles rather than strike/power projection tasks, which require heavier payloads (bombs and air-to-ground missiles). Five are in service: two in China, two in India, and one in Russia. Short take-off vertical-landing (STOVL): limited to carrying STOVL aircraft. STOVL aircraft, such as the Harrier family and Yakovlev Yak-38 generally have limited payloads, lower performance, and high fuel consumption when compared with conventional fixed-wing aircraft. However, a new generation of STOVL aircraft, currently consisting of the Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II, has much improved performance. Fourteen are in service; nine STOVL amphibious assault ships in the US; the UK has two Queen Elizabeth Class carriers, and Italy has one carrier and one amphibious assault ship, with one STOVL amphibious assault ship in Spain. Helicopter carrier: These carriers have a similar appearance to other aircraft carriers but operate only helicopters – those that mainly operate helicopters but can also operate fixed-wing aircraft are known as STOVL carriers (see above). Seventeen are in service: four in Japan; three in France; two each in Australia, China, Egypt and South Korea; and one each in Brazil and Thailand. In the past, some conventional carriers were converted and these were called "commando carriers" by the Royal Navy. Some helicopter carriers, but not all, are classified as amphibious assault ships, tasked with landing and supporting ground forces on enemy territory.
By size Fleet carrier Light aircraft carrier Escort carrier
Supercarrier
The appellation "supercarrier" is not an official designation with any national navy, but a term used predominantly by the media and typically when reporting on larger and more advanced carrier types. It is also used when comparing carriers of various sizes and capabilities, both current and past. It was first used by The New York Times in 1938, in an article about the Royal Navy's , that had a length of , a displacement of 22,000 tons and was designed to carry 72 aircraft. Since then, aircraft carriers have consistently grown in size, both in length and displacement, as well as improved capabilities; in defense, sensors, electronic warfare, propulsion, range, launch and recovery systems, number and types of aircraft carried and number of sorties flown per day.FIREPOWER: THE WEAPONS THE PROFESSIONALS USE – AND HOW. SUPERCARRIERS, #25 Orbis Publishing 1990
The first aircraft carrier over 80,000 tonnes full-load displacement was the USS Forrestal launched in 1954. In total, the US Navy has had 5 different classes of aircraft carrier of this size definition, the Forrestal class, Kitty Hawk class, the Enterprise class, the Nimitz class and Gerald R Ford Class, two of which were conventional steam-powered and three nuclear-powered. USS Enterprise, launched in 1960, was the first carrier over 90,000 tonnes full load displacement and Nimitz, launched in 1972, was the first over 100,000 tonnes displacement. A total of 22 supercarriers have been launched by the US Navy since 1954, with 11 currently in service.
Both China (Type 003) and the United Kingdom (Queen Elizabeth class) have carriers in service with displacements from 80,000 to 85,000 tonnes and lengths from which are described as "supercarriers". France is also developing a new aircraft carrier (PANG) which is to have a full load displacement of 80,000 tonnes and will be considered a supercarrier. The largest supercarrier in service as of 2024 is the US Navy's USS Gerald R. Ford, with full load displacement of around 100,000 tons, length of and capabilities that exceed those of any other class.
Ultracarrier A US Navy proposal for an aircraft carrier concept with a length of 1,310 feet and a displacement of 500,000 tons full load at a cost of $828 million in 1976 dollars.Donald M. Fort "Ultracarrier", Proceedings of the US Naval Institute (December 1978), Professional Notes P.125
Project Habakkuk could be considered an early proposal for an "ultracarrier".
Hull type identification symbols Several systems of identification symbol for aircraft carriers and related types of ship have been used. These include the pennant numbers used by the Royal Navy, Commonwealth countries, and Europe, along with the hull classification symbols used by the US and Canada.
+ US hull classification symbols for aircraft carriers and related ship types Symbol Designation CV Generic aircraft carrier CVA Attack carrier (up to 1975) CVB Large aircraft carrier (retired 1952) CVAN Nuclear-powered attack carrier CVE Escort carrier CVHA Aircraft carrier, Helicopter Assault (retired) CVHE Aircraft carrier, Helicopter, Escort (retired) CVV Aircraft Carrier (Medium) (proposed) CVL Light aircraft carrier CVN Nuclear-powered aircraft carrier CVS Anti-submarine warfare carrier CVT Training Aircraft Carrier CVU Utility carrier (retired) LHA Landing helicopter assault, a type of amphibious assault ship LHD Landing helicopter dock, a type of amphibious assault ship LPH Landing platform helicopter, a type of amphibious assault ship
History
Origins