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.
The Tarawa class is a ship class of Landing Helicopter Assault (LHA) type amphibious assault ships operated by the United States Navy (USN). Five ships were built by Ingalls Shipbuilding between 1971 and 1980; another four ships were planned, but later canceled; instead they were joined by the Wasp-class amphibious assault ships.
The Wasp class is a class of landing helicopter dock (LHD) amphibious assault ships operated by the United States Navy. Based on the Tarawa class, with modifications to operate more advanced aircraft and landing craft, the Wasp class is capable of transporting almost the full strength of a United States Marine Corps Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), and landing them in hostile territory via landing craft or helicopters as well as providing air support via AV-8B Harrier II attack aircraft or F-35B Lightning II stealth strike-fighters. All Wasp-class ships were built by Ingalls Shipbuilding, at Pascagoula, Mississippi, with the lead ship, USS Wasp, commissioned on 29 July 1989. Eight Wasp-class ships were built, and as of April 2021, seven are in active service, as USS Bonhomme Richard was seriously damaged by fire on 12 July 2020, and subsequently decommissioned in April 2021.
A landing helicopter dock (LHD) is a multipurpose amphibious assault ship which is capable of operating helicopters and has a well deck. The United States Navy (USN) and the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) use the term as a hull classification symbol.
Landing helicopter assault (LHA) is the United States Navy's hull classification symbol for the general purpose helicopter-carrying amphibious assault ships of the Tarawa and America classes.
A helicopter carrier is a type of aircraft carrier whose primary purpose is to operate helicopters. A helicopter carrier has a large flight deck that occupies a large part of the ship, which can extend the full length of the ship like HMS Ocean of the Royal Navy (RN), or only partway, usually aft, as in the Soviet Navy's Moskva class, the Chinese Navy's Type 0891A. It often also has a hangar deck for the storage of aircraft.
The America class is a ship class of landing helicopter assault (LHA) type amphibious assault ships of the United States Navy (USN). The class is designed to put ashore a Marine Expeditionary Unit using helicopters and MV-22B Osprey V/STOL transport aircraft, supported by AV-8B Harrier II or F-35 Lightning II V/STOL aircraft and various attack helicopters. The first of these warships was commissioned by the U.S. Navy in 2014 to replace USS Peleliu of the Tarawa class; as many as eleven will be built. The design of the America class is based on that of USS Makin Island, the last ship of the Wasp class, but the "Flight 0" ships of the America class will not have well decks, and they have smaller on-board hospitals in order to give more space for aviation uses.
The Ivan Rogov class, Soviet designation Project 1174 Nosorog (Rhino), is a class of landing ships built in the Soviet Union. The ships were built as a part of expansion of the Soviet Navy's amphibious warfare capabilities in the 1970s.
The Polnocny -class ships are amphibious warfare vessels. They were designed in Poland, in cooperation with the Soviet Navy and were built in Poland between 1967 and 2002. They now serve in several different navies, and some have been converted to civilian use. The name comes from the Stocznia Północna shipyard at Gdańsk, where they were built. 107 were built by 1986. In 2002, one ship of a modernised design NS-722 was built in Gdynia for Yemen.
The expeditionary strike group (ESG) is a United States Navy concept introduced in the early 1990s, based on the Naval Expeditionary Task Force. The U.S. Navy fields nine expeditionary strike groups and ten carrier strike groups (CSGs), in addition to surface action groups. ESGs allow the U.S. to provide highly movable and self-sustaining naval forces for missions in various parts of the world.
An amphibious assault ship is a type of amphibious warfare ship employed to land and support ground forces on enemy territory by an amphibious assault. The design evolved from aircraft carriers converted for use as helicopter carriers. Modern ships support amphibious landing craft, with most designs including a well deck. Coming full circle, some amphibious assault ships also support V/STOL fixed-wing aircraft, now having a secondary role as aircraft carriers.
An amphibious warfare ship is an amphibious vehicle warship employed to land and support ground forces, such as marines, on enemy territory during an amphibious assault.
The Ivan Gren class, Russian designation Project 11711, is a class of landing ship that is being built for the Russian Navy. The class was to be composed of two vessels, Ivan Gren and Pyotr Morgunov, but later it was announced that the Russian Navy intends to acquire several more vessels of a modified design.
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, the Russian Navy struggled to adjust Cold War force structures while suffering severely with insufficient maintenance and a lack of funding. However, improvements in the Russian economy over the last decade have seen a significant rise in defence expenditure and an increase in the number of ships under construction with a focus on blue-water vessels.
Indian Navy has planned 4 LPDs/LHDs to be built in 2020s for amphibious warfare, island protection and disaster relief roles. Each ship is expected to displace 30 to 40 thousand tonnes and able to carry 12 special operations and 2 heavy-lift helicopters and armed with CIWS and missiles. It is also expected to carry directed energy weapons once developed and operationalised by India. Ships are to be manufactured by an Indian shipyard but may be based on design from a foreign one.
The Type 075 landing helicopter dock is a class of Chinese amphibious assault ship under construction by the Hudong–Zhonghua Shipbuilding company for the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). It has a full-length flight deck for helicopter operations and features a floodable well deck from which to disembark hovercraft and armored amphibious assault vehicles.
The Project 23900 Ivan Rogov is the newest class of Russian amphibious assault ships (LHDs) intended as a replacement for the French Mistral class, two of which were ordered by Russia in 2011, but that France refused to deliver in September 2014 due to Russia's military intervention in Ukraine. A contract was signed on 22 May 2020 for the construction of two Project 23900 LHDs with a displacement of 40,000 tons. The construction is led by JSC Zelenodolsk Design Bureau, which is a part of JSC Ak Bars Shipbuilding Corporation, and the first vessel should be launched by 2023 and commissioned by 2025.
Soviet Navy 