US Navy (USN) Lieutenant Junior Grade (LTJG) Cynthia Sheridan (front), Junior Officer of the Deck (JOD), checks the instruments on the bridge of the Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier USS HARRY S. TRUMAN (CVN 75), while the USS HARRY S. TRUMAN is underway in the Atlantic Ocean (AOC) undergoing sea trials after completing a six-month Planned Incremental Availability (PIA) in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Norfolk, Virginia (VA)

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.