A US Navy (USN) SH-60F Seahawk, assigned to the "Black Knights" of Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Four (HS-4), performs a flare maneuver alongside the USN Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier, USS JOHN C. STENNIS (CVN 74), while the ship is underway in the Pacific Ocean participating in "Tiger Cruise 2004," a air and sea power demonstration. The STENNIS and embarked Carrier Air Wing Fourteen (CVW-14) are returning home from a five-month deployment to the Western Pacific Ocean

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.