Helicopter carrier

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Jeanne d'Arc, French navy

Helicopter carrier is a term for a warship (an aircraft carrier) whose primary purpose is to operate helicopters. The term is used for both anti-submarine warfare carriers and amphibious assault ships.

Helicopter carriers can either have a full-length aircraft deck like HMS Ocean, or have a large helicopter deck, usually aft, as in the Italian cruiser Vittorio Veneto or HMS Albion . The latter is becoming less common, as such a design represents a compromise. A full-length deck maximises deck space for helicopter landing spots. Such a design also allows for a hangar deck.

Pure helicopter carriers are difficult to find in the 21st century. The advent of STOVL aircraft such as the BAE Harrier have complicated the classification; the U.S. Navy's Wasp class, for instance, carries 6-8 Harriers as well as 30 helicopters. Only smaller carriers unable to operate the Harrier and older pre-Harrier-era carriers can be regarded as true helicopter carriers. In many cases, other carriers, able to operate STOVL aircraft, are classified as "light aircraft carriers".

HMS Hermes and two of her sisters were 22,000 ton fleet carriers converted to operate helicopters only as "commando carriers". Hermes was later converted to a STVOL carrier.