List of aircraft carriers



This list of aircraft carriers contains s listed alphabetically by name. An aircraft carrier is a warship with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft, that serves as a seagoing airbase.

Included in this list are ships which 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.

Not included in this list are the following:


 * s, 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.
 * s, 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.
 * , merchant ships which carried cargo and an aircraft catapult (no flight deck).
 * s that are converted merchant ships.
 * , cargo-carrying merchant ships with a full flight deck.
 * and seaplane carriers, because they could not land aircraft.
 * , because they had no flight deck and could not land their aircraft.

"In commission" denotes the period that the ship was officially in commission with the given name for the given country as an aircraft carrier as defined above.

Numbers of aircraft carriers by country
The table below does not include s, s, s, s,, or  The total includes ships under construction, but not ships that never got past the planning stage.