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, seago
Three steam catapult equipped aircraft carriers of various types—USS John C. Stennis, Charles de Gaulle (French Navy), and USS John F. Kennedy—along with the helicopter carrier HMS Ocean and escort vessels, 2002
Chinese aircraft carrier Fujian is the first aircraft carrier in the world to launch a fifth-generation fighter using the electromagnetic catapult system
French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle (rear) and US Navy carrier USS Ronald Reagan conducting joint operations in the Persian Gulf, each with the CATOBAR configuration
USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), a United States Navy fleet carrier, also often referred to as a supercarrier, crossing the Atlantic in 2019
A fleet carrier is an aircraft carrier designed to operate with the main fleet of a nation's navy. The term was developed during World War II, to distinguish it from the escort carrier and other less
Aircraft carrier
…of August 2026, 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…
Russian fleet carrier Admiral Kuznetsov
INS Viraat (top), a light carrier, and INS Vikramaditya (bottom), a medium-sized fleet carrier.