Top 10 Aircraft Carriers In The World (2020)

An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a naval force to project air power worldwide without depending on local bases for staging aircraft operations. Carriers have evolved since their inception in the early twentieth century from wooden vessels used to deploy balloons to nuclear-powered warships that carry numerous fighters, strike aircraft, helicopters, and other types of aircraft. While heavier aircraft such as fixed-wing gunships and bombers have been launched from aircraft carriers, it is currently not possible to land them. By its diplomatic and tactical power, its mobility, its autonomy and the variety of its means, the aircraft carrier is often the centerpiece of modern combat fleets. Tactically or even strategically, it replaced the battleship in the role of flagship of a fleet. One of its great advantages is that, by sailing in international waters, it does not interfere with any territorial sovereignty and thus obviates the need for overflight authorizations from third-party countries, reduces the times and transit distances of aircraft and therefore significantly increase the time of availability on the combat zone.
Included in this list are ships that meet the above definition and had an official name (italicized) or designation (non-italicized), regardless of whether they were or were not ordered, laid down, completed, or commissioned:
- Aircraft cruisers, also known as aviation cruisers, cruiser-carriers, flight deck cruisers, and hybrid battleship-carriers, which combine the characteristics of aircraft carriers and surface warfare ships, because they primarily operated helicopters or floatplanes and did not act as a floating airbase. Examples include the British Tiger-class cruisers, Japanese Hyūga-class helicopter destroyer, French cruiser Jeanne d'Arc, Soviet Moskva-class helicopter cruisers, and Italian Andrea Doria-class cruisers.
- Amphibious assault ships, also known as commando carriers, assault carriers, helicopter carriers, landing helicopter assault ships, landing helicopter docks, landing platform docks, and landing platform helicopters. Although they have flight decks and look like aircraft carriers, they primarily operate helicopters and do not act as a floating airbase. Examples include the US Wasp-class assault ships, Brazilian PHM Atlântico (A140), Japanese Akitsu Maru escort carrier, and French Mistral-class.
- Catapult aircraft merchantmen, merchant ships that carried cargo and an aircraft catapult (no flight deck).
- Escort carriers usually converted merchant ships, see separate List of escort carriers by country.
- Landing craft carriers such as USS LST-906, which were modified amphibious landing ships, because they could not recover their aircraft.
- Merchant aircraft carriers, cargo-carrying merchant ships with a full flight deck.
- Seaplane tenders and seaplane carriers, because they could not land aircraft.
- Submarine aircraft carriers, because they had no flight deck and could not land their aircraft.
Ships Design/Model Credits:
Chakri Naruebet Class:
https://www.deviantart.com/pjackaugusto/art/Thailand-Chakri-Naruebet-class-CVH-813919034
Cavour Class:
https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=204328
Kuznetsov:
https://www.wallpaperflare.com/warships-aircraft-carrier-russian-aircraft-carrier-admiral-kuznetsov-wallpaper-texmo
Queen Elizabeth:
https://www.facebook.com/QEAircraftCarriers/photos/p.1481112785369406/1481112785369406/?type=1&theater
Charles de Gaulle:
https://www.deviantart.com/pygargue56/art/aircraft-carrier-Charles-de-Gaulle-R91-605898599
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