The ten largest aircraft carrier classes in commission, ranked by full-load displacement in tonnes.
Quick answer: 1. Nimitz class (United States), 2. Gerald R. Ford class (United States), 3. Queen Elizabeth class (United Kingdom), 4. Fujian / Type 003 (China), 5. Shandong / Type 002 (China), 6. Liaoning / Type 001 (China), 7. Admiral Kuznetsov (Russia), 8. INS Vikramaditya (India), 9. INS Vikrant (India), 10. Charles de Gaulle (France).
An aircraft carrier is the heaviest warship any navy puts to sea, and full-load displacement — the weight of water the ship pushes aside when fully fuelled, armed and crewed — is the cleanest single measure of how much ship a navy actually bought. Only a handful of countries operate one at all, and only two operate anything above 100,000 tonnes. This list ranks the ten largest carrier classes currently in commission, one entry per class, from the 106,300-tonne Nimitz class down to France's 42,500-tonne Charles de Gaulle. The gap between first and tenth is a factor of 2.5, and the drop-off after the American and British ships is the single most revealing thing about global naval power.
The ten Nimitz-class carriers are the heaviest warships ever built, topping out at 106,300 tonnes for USS Theodore Roosevelt. Each is driven by two A4W nuclear reactors that give the ship effectively unlimited range, and the class has been the backbone of US carrier aviation since USS Nimitz commissioned in 1975.
At roughly 101,600 tonnes the Ford class is marginally lighter than the heaviest Nimitz ships but four metres longer at 337 m, making it the longest warship afloat. USS Gerald R. Ford commissioned in 2017 with electromagnetic catapults in place of steam and a smaller crew, and the class is intended to replace the Nimitz ships one for one.
HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales displace an estimated 80,600 tonnes each, making them by far the largest warships the Royal Navy has ever operated and the largest non-American carriers in service. They carry F-35B jets from a ski-jump rather than catapults, and use integrated electric propulsion instead of nuclear power.
Fujian is China's first catapult-equipped carrier and, at an estimated 80,000 tonnes, its largest warship by a wide margin. Commissioned in 2025, it uses electromagnetic catapults rather than the ski-jumps of its two predecessors, which lets it launch heavier aircraft with fuller fuel and weapons loads.
Shandong was China's first domestically built aircraft carrier, commissioned in December 2019, and displaces an estimated 70,000 tonnes. It reuses the Soviet-derived hull form of Liaoning but drops the anti-ship missile silos for hangar space and shallows the ski-jump from 14 to 12 degrees, giving it a meaningfully larger air wing.
Liaoning displaces about 60,900 tonnes and began life as the unfinished Soviet carrier Varyag, bought from Ukraine in 1998 and rebuilt in Dalian. Commissioned in 2012, it gave China its first operational carrier deck and now serves largely as a training platform for the newer Type 002 and Type 003.
At 58,600 tonnes Admiral Kuznetsov is Russia's only aircraft carrier, commissioned in 1991 and the design ancestor of both Chinese ski-jump carriers. It has not put to sea since 2017 after a drydock collapse, two fires and a stalled refit, and in 2025 Russian defence officials suspended the modernisation work entirely while weighing scrapping the ship.
Vikramaditya displaces 45,400 tonnes and is the larger of India's two carriers. It was built as the Soviet Baku, later Admiral Gorshkov, and was sold to India and comprehensively rebuilt with a ski-jump bow before commissioning in 2013.
Commissioned in 2022 at 45,000 tonnes, Vikrant is the first aircraft carrier designed and built in India, at Cochin Shipyard. It is shorter than Vikramaditya at 262 m but very nearly as heavy, and is powered by four General Electric LM2500 gas turbines.
The 42,500-tonne Charles de Gaulle is the smallest carrier on this list and the only nuclear-powered aircraft carrier outside the US Navy. Commissioned in 2001, it is also the only non-American carrier with steam catapults, which lets it operate conventional Rafale M fighters and E-2C Hawkeye radar aircraft.
| # | Name | Navy | Displacement | Length | Propulsion | First commissioned |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nimitz class (United States) | United States Navy | 106,300 t | 333 m | Nuclear (2 x A4W reactors) | 1975 |
| 2 | Gerald R. Ford class (United States) | United States Navy | 101,600 t | 337 m | Nuclear (2 x A1B reactors) | 2017 |
| 3 | Queen Elizabeth class (United Kingdom) | Royal Navy | 80,600 t | 284 m | Integrated electric (gas turbine and diesel) | 2017 |
| 4 | Fujian / Type 003 (China) | People's Liberation Army Navy | 80,000 t (est.) | 316 m | Conventional (steam turbine) | 2025 |
| 5 | Shandong / Type 002 (China) | People's Liberation Army Navy | 70,000 t (est.) | 305 m | Conventional (steam turbine) | 2019 |
| 6 | Liaoning / Type 001 (China) | People's Liberation Army Navy | 60,900 t | 306.4 m | Conventional (steam turbine) | 2012 |
| 7 | Admiral Kuznetsov (Russia) | Russian Navy | 58,600 t | 305 m | Conventional (steam turbine) | 1991 |
| 8 | INS Vikramaditya (India) | Indian Navy | 45,400 t | 284 m | Conventional (steam turbine) | 2013 |
| 9 | INS Vikrant (India) | Indian Navy | 45,000 t | 262 m | Conventional (4 x GE LM2500 gas turbines) | 2022 |
| 10 | Charles de Gaulle (France) | French Navy | 42,500 t | 261.5 m | Nuclear (2 x K15 reactors) | 2001 |
Ranked by full-load displacement in metric tonnes, using each class's heaviest commissioned ship where ships in a class differ (the Nimitz class spans roughly 101,600 to 106,300 tonnes; USS Theodore Roosevelt is the heaviest). Figures are taken from Wikipedia's list of aircraft carriers in service, cross-checked against each ship's or class's own reference article. One entry per class, so sister ships are not listed separately — otherwise the top ten would be nine Nimitz-class ships and a Ford. Only fixed-wing aircraft carriers in commission are included: amphibious assault ships that operate F-35Bs or helicopters (America class, Wasp class, Type 075, Izumo class, Trieste, Juan Carlos I, Anadolu) are excluded, as are ships under construction and carriers already decommissioned. Chinese displacement figures are open-source estimates rather than published specifications; Shandong is credited at 70,000 tonnes, the upper end of the 60,000-70,000 tonne range commonly cited, and Fujian at 80,000 tonnes, the figure most consistently reported. Admiral Kuznetsov is included because it remains formally commissioned, though it has not been operational since 2017 and Russian officials have been weighing scrapping it since 2025.
By full-load displacement it is a Nimitz-class ship: USS Theodore Roosevelt, at about 106,300 tonnes, is the heaviest warship ever built. By length the title goes to the newer USS Gerald R. Ford at 337 m, which is four metres longer than a Nimitz but displaces slightly less at roughly 101,600 tonnes.
This list ranks by full-load displacement, not by capability. The Ford class is a generation ahead — electromagnetic catapults, a redesigned island, far more electrical power and a smaller crew — but it was deliberately built to roughly the same size envelope as the Nimitz class rather than larger, and the heaviest Nimitz ships edge it out on tonnage.
Ships like the US America class (about 45,000 tonnes), Italy's Trieste, Japan's Izumo class and China's Type 075 are amphibious assault ships. Several of them operate F-35B jets and would rank in the 30,000-45,000 tonne band, but they are designed around landing troops and helicopters rather than around a fixed-wing air wing, so they are excluded here.
Counting only fixed-wing carriers in commission, the list above covers six navies: the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Russia, India and France. Thailand's Chakri Naruebet (about 11,500 tonnes) is a seventh, but it is far smaller and has operated without fixed-wing aircraft since its Harriers were retired.
More like this: all Geography & Earth rankings · browse every topic