US Navy Aviation Structural Mechanic AIRMAN Amy Burns, Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron Five (VQ-5) aboard the nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS NIMITZ (CVN 68), wipes down the canopy of an ES-3A Viking. Operation SOUTHERN WATCH, Persian Gulf, 18 October 1997

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.