Aerial starboard side view showing the US Navy (USN) SACRAMENTO CLASS: Fast Combat Support Ship, USS SEATTLE (AOE 3) (foreground), and the USN Aircraft Carrier, USS JOHN F. KENNEDY (CV 67), underway in the Atlantic Ocean, conducting Replenishment At Sea (RAS), in preparation for a scheduled six-month deployment. The USN Aircraft Carrier, USS ENTERPRISE (CVN 67), is underway in the background

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.