Aerial starboard side view showing the US Navy (USN) Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier, USS RONALD REAGAN (CVN 76) (foreground) and French Navy Aircraft Carrier, CHARLES DE GAULLE (R 91) underway in the Persian Gulf conducting joint Maritime Security Operations (MOS)

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.