A US Navy (USN) Sailor, assigned to the Air Department of the USN Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier USS HARRY S. TRUMAN (CVN 75), inspects one of the TRUMANs waist catapults prior to flight operations in the Persian Gulf in support of the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT)

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.