Light aircraft carrier

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, typically having a capacity of 1/2 to 2/3 of the aircraft of a full-sized carrier.

In the post War period, the Royal Navy operated a force of Light Aircraft Carriers, all of which were born out of Wartime designs. 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. Late in the war, a follow on design to the Independence class, the Saipan-class light carrier, was designed. Two vessels in this class, USS Saipan (CVL-48) and USS Wright (CVL-49), were completed after the war's end. After very brief lives as carriers, the Saipans were converted to command and communication ships.

Some modern references 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 Kuznetsov.