Sailors watch as USS Shoup (DDG 86), USS Mobile Bay (CG 53), and USS Russell (DDG 59) pull away from Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72).

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.