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, these aircraft have not landed on a carrier. 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 increases the time of availability on the combat zone.
A carrier battle group (CVBG) is a naval fleet consisting of an aircraft carrier capital ship and its large number of escorts, together defining the group. The CV in CVBG is the United States Navy hull classification code for an aircraft carrier.
Giuseppe Garibaldi is an Italian aircraft carrier, the first through-deck aviation ship ever built for the Italian Navy, and the first Italian ship built to operate fixed-wing aircraft. Although she is widely recognised as a carrier first and foremost, she is officially designated as an aircraft-carrying cruiser. She is equipped with short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft and helicopters. Giuseppe Garibaldi was involved in combat air operations off Somalia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Libya.
USS Wasp (LHD-1) is a United States Navy multipurpose amphibious assault ship, and the lead ship of her class. She is the tenth USN vessel to bear the name since 1775, with the last two ships named Wasp being aircraft carriers. She was built by the Ingalls Shipbuilding division of Litton in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Wasp and her sister ships are the first specifically designed to accommodate new Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) for fast troop movement over the beach, and Harrier II (AV-8B) Vertical/Short Take-Off and Landing (V/STOL) jets which provide close air support for the assault force. She can also accommodate the full range of Navy and Marine Corps helicopters, the tiltrotor MV-22 Osprey, the F-35B Lightning II multi-role fighter, conventional landing craft, and amphibious vehicles.
The Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy consists of two vessels. The lead ship of her class, HMS Queen Elizabeth, was named on 4 July 2014 in honour of Elizabeth I and was commissioned on 7 December 2017. Her sister ship, HMS Prince of Wales, was launched on 21 December 2017, and was commissioned on 10 December 2019. They form the central components of the UK Carrier Strike Group.
HMS Queen Elizabeth is the lead ship of the Queen Elizabeth class of aircraft carriers and the Fleet Flagship of the Royal Navy. Capable of carrying 60 aircraft including fixed wing, rotary wing and autonomous vehicles, she is named in honour of the first HMS Queen Elizabeth, a World War I era super-dreadnought, which in turn was named after Queen Elizabeth I. The carrier Queen Elizabeth carries her namesake ship's honours, as well as her Tudor rose-adorned crest and motto.
The Italian Navy is one of the four branches of Italian Armed Forces and was formed in 1946 from what remained of the Regia Marina after World War II. As of August 2014, the Italian Navy had a strength of 30,923 active personnel, with approximately 184 vessels in service, including minor auxiliary vessels. It is considered a multiregional and a blue-water navy.
Aquila was an Italian aircraft carrier converted from the transatlantic passenger liner SS Roma. During World War II, Work on Aquila began in late 1941 at the Ansaldo shipyard in Genoa and continued for the next two years. With the signing of the Italian armistice on 8 September 1943, however, all work was halted and the vessel remained unfinished. She was captured by the National Republican Navy of the Italian Social Republic and the German occupation forces in 1943, but in 1945 she was partially sunk by a commando attack of Mariassalto, an Italian royalist assault unit of the Co-Belligerent Navy of the Kingdom of Italy, made up by members of the former Decima Flottiglia MAS. Aquila was eventually refloated and scrapped in 1952.
A blue-water navy is a maritime force capable of operating globally, essentially across the deep waters of open oceans. While definitions of what actually constitutes such a force vary, there is a requirement for the ability to exercise sea control at long range.
An amphibious assault ship is a type of warship employed to land and support ground forces on enemy territory during an armed conflict. The design evolved from aircraft carriers converted for use as helicopter carriers. Modern designs support amphibious landing craft, with most designs including a well deck. Like the aircraft carriers they were developed from, some amphibious assault ships also support V/STOL fixed-wing aircraft and have a secondary role as aircraft carriers.
Operazione White Crane was Italy's military relief operation for Haiti, following the 12 January 2010 earthquake.
Etna is an auxiliary ship that entered service with the Marina Militare in 1998. She is designed to support fleet operations with fuel and dry stores. Etna is the single Italian vessel of the Etna class while a sister ship, HS Prometheus, was built under licence in Greece and entered service with the Hellenic Navy in 2003.
JS Izumo (DDH-183) is a helicopter carrier which, as of 2022, is being converted into a light aircraft carrier. Officially classified as a multi-purpose operation destroyer, she is the lead ship in the Izumo class of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF). She is the second warship to be named for Izumo Province, with the previous ship being the armored cruiser Izumo (1898).
JS Kaga (DDH-184) is a helicopter carrier of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF). She is currently undergoing conversion into a light aircraft carrier, which is scheduled to be complete around fiscal year 2027. Officially classified as a multi-purpose operation destroyer, she is the second ship in the Izumo class, the other being JS Izumo. Her namesake arises from Kaga Province in present-day Ishikawa Prefecture.
Trieste is a multi-role amphibious unit of the Italian Navy, officially classified as a landing helicopter dock, it will be the largest vessel in the Italian fleet. It was ordered as part of the 2014–2015 naval program and was built at the Castellammare di Stabia shipyards of Fincantieri.
The Italian Naval Aviation is the naval air component of the Italian Navy composed of around 2000 men and women and 69 aircraft and helicopters.
Carlo Bergamini(F 590) is a Carlo Bergamini-class frigate of the Italian Navy. Which in turn were developed by the FREMM multipurpose frigate program.
Virginio Fasan is a Carlo Bergamini-class frigate of the Italian Navy. The vessel was constructed Fincantieri's La Spezia shipyard and was launched on 31 March 2012. The frigate has been deployed on EUNAVFOR missions to counter piracy and attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
Luigi Rizzo(F 595) is a Carlo Bergamini-class frigate of the Italian Navy which were developed from the FREMM multipurpose frigate program.
The United Kingdom Carrier Strike Group 21 (CSG21) was a British-led naval force that was deployed on Operation Fortis from May to December 2021. The Carrier Strike Group is seen as the beginning of the British Government's tilt towards the Indo-Pacific region in terms of defence and foreign policy, that had been announced in March through the Integrated Review. It was the first strike group deployment for the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers, and the first operational deployment of the UK Carrier Strike Group since 2011. The deployment was the largest single deployment of F-35 fighter aircraft since the programme started in 2006, and the largest fifth-generation fighter carrier air wing in the world at the time. Furthermore, HMS Queen Elizabeth saw the largest number of personnel embarked since she entered service, and the group contained the largest number of Royal Navy maritime helicopters deployed in over 10 years.
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