A silhouetted port beam view of the anti-submarine warfare support aircraft carrier ex-USS INTREPID (CVS-11) and the tug boat towing it. The INTREPID is en route to Bayonne, N.J., to be refitted and opened to the public as a museum in New York

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.