A starboard view of the Military Sealift Command-chartered cargo ship CAPE NOME (T-AK-1014) underway as it departs Naval Station, Norfolk, Va., for the Persian Gulf region. The stern of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS ENTERPRISE (CVN-65) is in the right foreground

Aircraft carriers are warships that act as airbases for carrier-based aircraft. In the United States Navy, these consist of ships commissioned with hull classification symbols CV (aircraft carrier), CVA (attack aircraft carrier), CVB (large aircraft carrier), CVL (light aircraft carrier), CVN (aircraft carrier (nuclear propulsion) and CVAN (attack aircraft carrier (nuclear propulsion). The first aircraft carrier commissioned into the United States Navy was USS Langley (CV-1) on 20 March 1922.