The U.S. Navy is signaling, albeit tentatively, its willingness to replace some of its existing nuclear-power aircraft carriers with smaller, conventionally fueled light carriers. Here's our guess ...

The Rise Of The Aircraft Carrier In WWII. ... Nonetheless, these carriers entered service alongside the first of the Navy’s Essex-class carriers in 1943. The Independence (CV/CVL-22) ...

The U.S. naval establishment for years has debated adding small, conventionally-fueled “light” aircraft carriers to the fleet’s existing force of 11 huge, nuclear-powered supercarriers.