Countries with aircraft carriers in their navies
An aircraft carrier is a floating airbase that projects a country's military and economic power at sea. Eleven countries operate carriers today, and NATO members together with Japan have 20 between them.
Countries with aircraft carriers in their navies
An aircraft carrier is a class of warship designed to host and operate air groups on board in sea areas far from their home bases. In essence it is a mobile airbase operating on the open sea to serve a country’s foreign-policy, military and economic interests. A carrier is highly vulnerable, so it is always deployed as part of a carrier strike group, which includes combat aircraft, among them nuclear-capable ones, and is shielded by other warships, an air-defence division, an anti-submarine division, one or two multi-purpose submarines and a supply ship.
The carrier’s main striking power is the air group based on board, made up of combat aircraft (fighters and attack aircraft, including nuclear-capable ones) and various support aircraft (tankers, airborne early warning and control aircraft, anti-submarine aircraft, reconnaissance aircraft and electronic-warfare aircraft) and helicopters (search-and-rescue, reconnaissance, anti-submarine and transport). Aircraft carriers are operational-tactical, highly mobile combat units that allow significant fleet forces to be concentrated quickly anywhere in the world’s oceans. However, with the development of missile weapons, the strategic importance of the carrier as the fleet’s main striking force has fallen significantly, especially against the backdrop of Russian, Chinese and Iranian hypersonic missiles.
The cost of building a modern nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is estimated at $4–6 billion. The development and construction of the new multi-purpose carrier Gerald R. Ford, however, cost the United States $13 billion.
At present only 11 countries in the world have aircraft carriers: the United States, China, Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Türkiye, Japan, Russia, India and Thailand. NATO countries and Japan together have 20 carriers of various types, including the United States (11 carriers: 10 Nimitz-class nuclear-powered carriers, commissioned in 1975, 1977, 1982, 1986, 1989, 1992, 1995, 1998, 2003 and 2009, and one new Gerald R. Ford-class carrier, also nuclear-powered, in 2017), Britain (2 of the newest and largest Queen Elizabeth-class carriers, in 2017 and 2019), France (the nuclear-powered carrier Charles de Gaulle, 2001), Italy (2 carriers, including the older Giuseppe Garibaldi, 1985, and the new Cavour-class carrier, 2007), Spain (the Juan Carlos universal landing ship-carrier, 2010), Türkiye (1 universal landing ship, Anadolu, which can be configured as a light aircraft carrier) and Japan (2 of the newest Izumo-class helicopter destroyers and carriers, 2015).
Russia has one heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser, Admiral Kuznetsov (Project 1143.5), which is so far the country’s only aircraft-carrying ship and the flagship of the Russian Navy and the Northern Fleet. Russia plans to build two new carriers in the coming years. India has 2 carriers, including the modernised Vikramaditya (the former Admiral Gorshkov, bought from Russia) and the new multi-purpose carrier Vikrant. China has 3 carriers, including the heavy carrier Liaoning (the former Varyag, sold by Ukraine and completed by China) and the modern carriers Shandong and Fujian, built entirely by China. China is currently building a fourth carrier. Thailand has the lightest of the modern carriers, Chakri Naruebet.