Onboard the flight deck of the US Navy (USN) Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier, USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (CVN 69), USN Sailors assigned to Helicopter Anti-submarine Squadron 5 (HS-5), wash the windshield of a USN SH-60 Sea Hawk helicopter, in preparations for flight operations. The EISENHOWER and embarked Carrier Air Wing 7 (CVW-7) Sailors are participating in their Composite Training Unit Exercise (COMPTUEX), while underway in the Atlantic 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.