Sailors, Marines and their guests gather on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) as the ship departs Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam after a regularly scheduled port visit for a Tiger Cruise.

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.