page_title: Aircraft carrier
section_title: Australia
hierarchical_section_title: Aircraft carrier / National fleets / Australia
caption_attribution_description: English: HMAS Canberra (LHD 02) at berth prior to commissioning
context_page_description: 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.
context_section_description: Current
  The Royal Australian Navy operates two Canberra-class landing helicopter docks. The two-ship class, based on the Spanish vessel Juan Carlos I and built by Navantia and BAE Systems Australia, represents the largest ships ever built for the Royal Australian Navy.
  HMAS Canberra underwent sea trials in late 2013 and was commissioned in 2014. Her sister ship, HMAS Adelaide, was commissioned in December 2015. The Australian ships retain the ski-ramp from the Juan Carlos I design, although the RAN has not acquired carrier-based fixed-wing aircraft.
caption: HMAS Canberra, a Canberra-class landing helicopter dock
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