An elevated port bow view of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (CVN 69), underway. Escorting the EISENHOWER are, clockwise from upper left, the destroyer USS COMPTE DE GRASSE (DD 974), the frigate USS GARCIA (FF 1040, an unidentified tender and the destroyers USS JOHN HANCOCK (DD 981) and USS NICHOLSON (DD 982). A formation of aircraft is making a low-level pass over the group of ships

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.