Aircraft Carrier

## **History:**

The Allied Powers use the Enterprise Aircraft Carriers as their carrier models.

* **USS *Enterprise* (CV-6)** was a *Yorktown*-class carrier built for the United States Navy during the 1930s. She was the seventh U.S. Navy vessel of that name. Colloquially called "**The Big E**", she was the sixth aircraft carrier of the United States Navy. Launched in 1936, she was one of only three American carriers commissioned before World War II to survive the war (the others being *Saratoga* and *Ranger*). She participated in more major actions of the war against Japan than any other United States ship. These actions included the attack on Pearl Harbor — 18 Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers of her Air Group arrived over the harbor during the attack; seven were shot down with eight airmen killed and two wounded, making her the only American aircraft carrier with men at Pearl Harbor during the attack and the first to sustain casualties during the Pacific War — the Battle of Midway, the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, various other air-sea engagements during the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and the Battle of Leyte Gulf. *Enterprise* earned 20 battle stars, the most for any U.S. warship in World War II, and was the most decorated U.S. ship of World War II. She was also the first American ship to sink a full-sized enemy warship after the Pacific War had been declared when her aircraft sank the Japanese submarine *I-70* on 10 December 1941. On three occasions during the war, the Japanese announced that she had been sunk in battle, inspiring her nickname "The Grey Ghost". By the end of the war, her planes and guns had downed 911 enemy planes, sunk 71 ships, and damaged or destroyed 192 more.

The Axis Powers use the Akagi Aircraft Carriers as their carrier models.

* ***Akagi*** (Japanese: 赤城) was an aircraft carrier built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), named after Mount Akagi in present-day Gunma Prefecture. Though she was laid down as an *Amagi*-class battlecruiser, *Akagi* was converted to an aircraft carrier while still under construction to comply with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty. The ship was rebuilt from 1935 to 1938 with her original three flight decks consolidated into a single enlarged flight deck and an island superstructure. The second Japanese aircraft carrier to enter service, and the first large or "fleet" carrier, *Akagi* and the related *Kaga* figured prominently in the development of the IJN's new carrier striking force doctrine that grouped carriers together, concentrating their air power. This doctrine enabled Japan to attain its strategic goals during the early stages of the Pacific War from December 1941 until mid-1942.

NATO uses the Forrestal Aircraft Carriers as their carrier models.

* ***Forrestal*-class aircraft carriers** were four aircraft carriers designed and built for the United States Navy in the 1950s. The class ship was named for James Forrestal, the first United States Secretary of Defense. It was the first class of supercarriers, combining high tonnage, deck-edge elevators and an angled deck. The first ship was commissioned in 1955, the last decommissioned in 1998.

The Warsaw Pact uses Kiev-class aircraft carrier as their carrier models.

* The ***Kiev*-class aircraft carrier** Laid down in 1970, the first ship of the class, *Kiev*, was partially based on a design for a full-deck carrier proposed in Project Orel. Originally the Soviet Navy wanted a supercarrier similar to the American *Kitty Hawk*-class. However, the smaller *Kiev*-class design was chosen because it was considered more cost-effective. Unlike most NATO aircraft carriers, such as U.S. or most British ones, the *Kiev* class is a combination of both a cruiser and an aircraft carrier. In the Soviet Navy, this class of ships was specifically designated as a "heavy aviation cruiser" (Russian: Тяжелые авианесущие крейсера) rather than solely as an aircraft carrier. This designation allowed the ships to transit the Turkish Straits, while the 1936 Montreux Convention prohibited aircraft carriers heavier than 15,000 tons from passing through the Straits. Note that the model is **without** its heavy armed weapons

### Uses

The Aircraft Carrier is useful for taking out large clusters of ships or for focusing down a single but very bulky ship unit, while your subs and cruisers deal with the enemy fleets. Aircraft carriers are also useful in damaging small cities, however is useless against large ones. This ship has a similar rule to artillery: Keep them behind, while your main fleets hit on the enemy fleet. Required for comfortable runs on Conquest.