Light aircraft carrier

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Light aircraft carrier

AV-8S Harriers embarked on the Spanish Navy light carrier Dédalo

A light aircraft carrier is an aircraft carrier that is smaller than the standard carriers of a navy. The precise definition of the type varies by country; light carriers typically have half to two thirds of the aircraft complement of a full-sized carrier.

In World War II, the United States Navy produced a number of light carriers by converting cruiser hulls. The Independence class aircraft carriers, converted from Cleveland class light cruisers, were unsatisfactory ships for aviation with their narrow, short decks and slender, high-sheer hulls; in virtually all respects the escort carriers were superior aviation vessels. The Independence class ships, however, had the virtue of being available at a time when available carrier decks had been reduced to Enterprise and Saratoga in the Pacific and Ranger in the Atlantic. In addition, unlike escort carriers, they had enough speed to take part in fleet actions with the larger carriers. Late in the war, a follow on design to the Independence class, the Saipan class light carrier, was designed. Two vessels in this class, US Ships Saipan and Wright, were completed after the war's end. After very brief lives as carriers, the Saipans were converted to command and communication ships.

In the post war period, the British Royal Navy also operated a force of light aircraft carriers, all of which were born out of wartime designs. British-built light fleet carriers of the Colossus and Majestic classes were also sold to Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, India and The Netherlands.

Some modern references^{[citation needed]} call the French Charles de Gaulle a "light carrier," though at 40,000 tons and nuclear powered she dwarfs the vast majority of the world's aircraft carriers with the exception of the American supercarriers and the Russian Admiral Kuznetsov. By the standards of U.S. nuclear aircraft carriers, however, the primary example of which is the 100,000 ton Nimitz class, CdG is indeed "light."