List of US Aircraft Carriers

Last Updated : 19 Mar, 2024

An Aircraft Carrier can be simply described as "an airfield at sea"; They are warships/ naval vessels that facilitate airplanes to take off and land at sea. Aircraft Carriers became popular during World War II, especially after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor by carrier-based planes in 1941 which demonstrated the potential of the aircraft carrier. This article discusses US Aircraft Carriers like CVL-29, CVL-30, CV-31, etc.

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List of US Aircraft Carriers

The table below gives us a list of aircraft carriers of the United States Navy with details like the date of their commission, service life, current status, etc. Please go through the table for more information on US Aircraft Carriers:

Hull No.	Name of the Aircraft Carrier	Class	Commissioned	Decommissioned	Service Life	Status
CV-1	USS Langley	Langley (lead ship)	March 1922	February 1942	19 years, 344 days	Sunk near Cilacap, Java in 1942
CV-2	USS Lexington	Lexington (lead ship)	December 1927	May 1942	14 years, 145 days	Sunk in the Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942
CV-3	USS Saratoga	Lexington	November 1927	July 1946	18 years, 254 days	Sunk as a target ship near Bikini Atoll during Operation Crossroads in 1946
CV-4	USS Ranger	Ranger (lead ship)	June 1934	October 1946	12 years, 136 days	Scrapped/ Recalled in 1947
CV-5	USS Yorktown	Yorktown (lead ship)	September 1937	June 1942	4 years, 250 days	Sunk in the Battle of Midway in 1942
CV-6	USS Enterprise	Yorktown	May 1938	February 1947	8 years, 281 days	Scrapped in 1960
CV-7	USS Wasp	Wasp (lead ship)	April 1940	September 1942	2 years, 143 days	Sunk during the Guadalcanal campaign in 1942
CV-8	USS Hornet	Yorktown	October 1941	October 1942	1 year, 7 days	Sunk in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in 1942
CV-9	USS Essex	Essex (lead ship)	December 1942	June 1969	26 years, 171 days	Scrapped in 1975
CV-10	USS Yorktown	Essex	April 1943	June 1970	27 years, 73 days	Preserved at the Patriot's Point Naval & Maritime Museum at Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, USA
CV-11	USS Intrepid	Essex	August 1943	March 1974	30 years, 211 days	Preserved at the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum at New York City, New York, USA
CV-12	USS Hornet	Essex	November 1943	May 1970	26 years, 187 days	Preserved at USS Hornet Museum—Alameda, California, USA
CV-13	USS Franklin	Essex	January 1944	February 1947	2 years, 351 days	Scrapped in 1966
CV-14	USS Ticonderoga	Essex (extended bow)	May 1944	September 1973	29 years, 116 days	Scrapped in 1975
CV-15	USS Randolph	Essex (extended bow)	October 1944	February 1969	24 years, 127 days	Scrapped in 1975
CV-16	USS Lexington	Essex	February 1943	November 1991	48 years, 264 days	Preserved at USS Lexington Museum on the Bay— Corpus Christi, Texas, USA
CV-17	USS Bunker Hill	Essex	May 1943	July 1947	4 years, 45 days	Scrapped in 1973
CV-18	USS Wasp	Essex	November 1943	July 1972	28 years, 220 days	Scrapped in 1973
CV-19	USS Hancock	Essex (extended bow)	April 1944	January 1976	31 years, 290 days	Scrapped in 1976
CV-20	USS Bennington	Essex	August 1944	January 1970	25 years, 162 days	Scrapped in 1994
CV-21	USS Boxer	Essex (extended bow)	April 1945	December 1969	24 years, 229 days	Scrapped in 1971
CV-22	USS Independence	Independence (lead ship)	January 1943	August 1946	3 years, 226 days	Sunk as target ship near the Farallon Islands in 1951
CV-23	USS Princeton	Independence	February 1943	October 1944	1 year, 242 days	Sunk in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944
CV-24	USS Belleau Wood	Independence	March 1943	January 1947	3 years, 288 days	Scrapped in 1960
CV-25	USS Cowpens	Independence	May 1943	January 1947	3 years, 230 days	Scrapped in 1960
CV-26	USS Monterey	Independence	June 1943	January 1956	12 years, 213 days	Scrapped in 1971
C-27	USS Langley	Independence	August 1943	February 1947	3 years, 164 days	Scrapped in 1964
C-28	USS Cabot	Independence	July 1943	January 1955	11 years, 181 days	Scrapped in 2002
C-29	USS Bataan	Independence	November 1943	April 1954	10 years, 143 days	Scrapped in 1961
C-30	USS San Jacinto	Independence	December 1943	March 1947	3 years, 76 days	Scrapped in 1972
CV-31	USS Bon Homme Richard	Essex	November 1944	July 1971	26 years, 218 days	Scrapped in 1992
CV-32	USS Leyte	Essex (extended bow)	April 1946	May 1959	13 years, 34 days	Scrapped in 1970
CV-33	USS Kearsarge	Essex (extended bow)	May 1946	January 1970	23 years, 258 days	Scrapped in 1974
CV-34	USS Oriskany	Essex (extended bow)	September 1950	September 1979	28 years, 360 days	Scuttled as artificial reef in the Gulf of Mexico in 2006
CV-35	USS Reprisal	Essex (extended bow)	-	-	-	Cancelled during construction. Scrapped in 1949
CV-36	USS Antietam	Essex (extended bow)	January 1945	May 1963	18 years, 100 days	Scrapped in 1974
CV-37	USS Princeton	Essex (extended bow)	November 1945	January 1970	24 years, 73 days	Scrapped in 1971
CV-38	USS Shangri-La	Essex (extended bow)	September 1944	July 1971	26 years, 318 days	Scrapped in 1988
CV-39	USS Lake Champlain	Essex (extended bow)	July 1945	May 1966	20 years, 303 days	Scrapped in 1972
CV-40	USS Tarawa	Essex (extended bow)	December 1945	May 1960	14 years, 157 days	Scrapped in 1968
CVB-41	USS Midway	Midway (lead ship)	September 1945	April 1992	46 years, 214 days	Preserved at the USS Midway Museum—San Diego, California, USA
CVB-42	USS Franklin D. Roosevelt	Midway	October 1945	October 1977	31 years, 339 days	Scrapped in 1978
CVB-43	USS Coral Sea	Midway	October 1947	April 1990	42 years, 207 days	Scrapped in 2000
CV-44	No name assigned	Midway	-	-	-	Cancelled before construction began.
CV-45	USS Valley Forge	Essex (extended bow)	November 1946	January 1970	23 years, 73 days	Scrapped in 1971
CV-46	USS Iwo Jima	Essex (extended bow)	-	-	-	Cancelled during construction. Scrapped in 1949
CV-47	USS Philippine Sea	Essex (extended bow)	May 1946	December 1958	12 years, 231 days	Scrapped in 1971
CVL-48	USS Saipan	Saipan (lead ship)	July 1946	January 1970	23 years, 184 days	Scrapped in 1976
CVL-49	USS Wright	Saipan	February 1947	March 1956	9 years, 35 days	Scrapped in 1980
CV-50 – CV-55	No names assigned	Essex	-	-	-	These hulls were all cancelled before construction began.
CVB-56, CVB-57	No names assigned	Midway	-	-	-	These hulls were all cancelled before construction began.
CVA-58	USS United States	United States (lead ship)	-	-	-	Cancelled during construction. Scrapped on slip in 1949
CV-59	USS Forrestal	Forrestal (lead ship)	October 1955	September 1993	37 years, 364 days	Scrapped in 2015
CV-60	USS Saratoga	Forrestal	April 1956	August 1994	38 years, 128 days	Scrapped in 2019
CV-61	USS Ranger	Forrestal	August 1957	July 1993	35 years, 334 days	Scrapped in 2017
CV-62	USS Independence	Forrestal	January 1959	September 1998	39 years, 263 days	Scrapped in 2019
CV-63	USS Kitty Hawk	Kitty Hawk (lead ship)	April 1961	May 2009	48 years, 13 days	Undergoing scrapping
CV-64	USS Constellation	Kitty Hawk	October 1961	August 2003	41 years, 284 days	Scrapped in 2017
CV-65	USS Enterprise	Enterprise (lead ship)	November 1961	February 2017	55 years, 70 days	Struck, to be scrapped
CV-66	USS America	Kitty Hawk	January 1965	August 1996	31 years, 199 days	Sunk as target ship in the Atlantic Ocean in 2005
CV-67	USS John F. Kennedy	John F. Kennedy (lead ship)	September 1968	March 2007	38 years, 197 days	Sold for scrap in 2021
CVN-68	USS Nimitz	Nimitz (lead ship)	May 1975	-	48 years, 317 days	Stationed at Naval Base Kitsap, Bremerton, Washington
CVN-69	USS Dwight D. Eisenhower	Nimitz	October 1977	-	46 years, 149 days	Stationed at Naval Station Norfolk, Norfolk, Virginia
CVN-70	USS Carl Vinson	Nimitz	March 1982	-	42 years, 2 days	Stationed at Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, California
CVN-71	USS Theodore Roosevelt	Nimitz	October 1986	-	37 years, 142 days	Stationed at Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, California
CVN-72	USS Abraham Lincoln	Nimitz	November 1989	-	34 years, 125 days	Stationed at Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, California
CVN-73	USS George Washington	Nimitz	July 1992	-	31 years, 255 days	Stationed at Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, California (Undergoing Maintenance)
CVN-74	USS John C. Stennis	Nimitz	December 1995	-	28 years, 97 days	Stationed at Naval Station Norfolk, Norfolk, Virginia
CVN-75	USS Harry S. Truman	Nimitz	July 1998	-	25 years, 234 days	Stationed at Naval Station Norfolk, Norfolk, Virginia
CVN-76	USS Ronald Reagan	Nimitz	July 2003	-	20 years, 247 days	Stationed at Yokosuka Naval Base, Yokosuka, Japan
CVN-77	USS George H.W. Bush	Nimitz	January 2009	-	15 years, 65 days	Stationed at Naval Station Norfolk, Norfolk, Virginia
CVN-78	Gerald R. Ford	Gerald R. Ford (lead ship)	July 2017	-	6 years, 237 days	Stationed at Naval Station Norfolk, Norfolk, Virginia
CVN-79	John F. Kennedy	Gerald R. Ford	c. 2025	-	-	Fitting out
CVN-80	Enterprise	Gerald R. Ford	c. 2028	-	-	Under construction
CVN-81	Doris Miller	Gerald R. Ford	c. 2032	-	-	Under construction
CVN-82	TBA	Gerald R. Ford	c. 2034	-	-	Ordered

Importance of Aircraft Carriers

Aircraft Carriers have proved to be extremely significant in boosting a country's military strength. Given below are the major reasons why aircraft carriers are important and essential for a nation:

1. Offensive Capabilities

Aircraft carriers help the naval forces to carry out offensive operations like bombing raids, from the sea. For e.g.- the latest super carrier of the US Navy, USS Gerald R Ford has features like Surface-to-air missiles, that will greatly boost US Navy's dominance over enemies during sea battles.

2. Defensive Capabilities

Aircraft Carriers are also installed with many technological features that increase its defensive capabilities. We can see this in the latest Gerald-class carriers that has advance defense system and sensors onboard, which gives them an extra edge over the enemies.

3. Increased Air Support

Aircraft carriers can easily launch and recover aircraft at sea, enabling them to provide air support anywhere in the world. Aircraft carriers also provide air support for ground forces, allowing them to quickly respond to threats even on a foreign land.

4. Interdiction of Maritime Trafficking and Intelligence Gathering

Aircraft carriers can detect and intercept ships/vessels carrying illegal goods or weapons and can be used to provide support for law enforcement operations, thereby helping a nation combat organized crime and terrorism. Aircraft carriers can be used for intelligence gathering, as they can deploy reconnaissance aircraft to gather intel on enemies and can be used to provide electronic surveillance, adding to the defense mechanism of the armed forces.

5. Unlimited Range

The latest Gerald-class carriers of the US Navy, and the older Nimitz-class carriers have unlimited range, because of nuclear-powered propulsion aka in case of a war or an operation, even if the fuel supply ships of the US Navy are intercepted or destroyed by enemies, the carriers will continue to perform their duties, as they can generate their own power.

Conclusion

Aircraft Carriers are an essential part of a country's armed forces. As we have seen above, they help in the offense and defense against enemy forces, and are key players during a sea battle. Aircraft carriers with latest technologies are symbols of dominance over the sea, and any country aiming at maritime dominance owns owns them. The US being a formidable military power has introduced various types of Aircraft Carriers over the years, since the World War II, improving their technology resulting in the growing strength of US Navy. Every nation across the global aiming for a strong military is acquiring more and more Aircraft Carriers.

List of US Aircraft Carriers

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List of US Aircraft Carriers

List of US Aircraft Carriers

Importance of Aircraft Carriers

1. Offensive Capabilities

2. Defensive Capabilities

3. Increased Air Support

4. Interdiction of Maritime Trafficking and Intelligence Gathering

5. Unlimited Range

Conclusion

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