US Navy (USN) Aviation Boatswains Mate CHIEF (ABCM) David Adams, directs a USN F-14C Tomcat aircraft onto a steam powered catapults on the flight deck aboard the USN NIMITZ CLASS: Aircraft Carrier USS GEORGE WASHINGTON (CVN 73), as the carrier conducts a Composite Training Unit Exercises (COMPTUEX) in preparation for an upcoming six-month deployment

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.