From Command and Conquer Wiki
 A GDI aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean sea, early 1995. |
 A GDI aircraft carrier, undisclosed location, 2047. |
An aircraft carrier is a warship designed to deploy and recover aircraft — in effect acting as a sea-going airbase and as a Command Center. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power great distances without having to depend on local bases for land-based aircraft. GDI commanded (and still commands) a substantial fleet of these ships in order to sustain their airforce where a land-based airbase would be impossible or unfeasible.
During the First Tiberium War, the Nimitz class aircraft carriers played an important role in warfare, as they served both to support their airforce as well as doubling as staging areas for commando raids, together with their smaller cousins, the helicopter carriers. The F/A-18E/F Super Hornets were often chosen as the carrier's fighters. Following the war, as Tiberium began to clog the waterways, GDI slowly recalled existing warships and anchored them in ports, for dismantling and/or refurbishing. Eventually, with the decontamination of Earth's atmosphere, and with the elimination of tiberium creep on the oceans the problem was rectified, and GDI naval forces were able to take to sea once again.
Currently, GDI fields a massive aircraft carrier, larger than the GDI battleship, designed for supporting ground forces and amphibious operations. These ships are equipped with one launch deck for deploying fully armed Firehawk Fighter/Bomber and four VTOL landing pads for retrevial, advanced sensor equipment and command interfaces, as well as four light deck guns for dealing with close threats. However, these are by no means meant for direct combat, proven when during the Nod strike on Hampton Roads, a single commando managed to sink the GDS Pathe, the sole remaining supplier of air power on the eastern US seaboard. Later, another carrier was sunk by Nod forces off the Atlantic coast of Brazil. Two aircraft carriers were also used in the unsuccessful attempt to re-capture Dr. Giraud from Nod Black Hand forces.
