Landing a plane on a small flight deck is far harder than on a large runway—and requires a much larger support crew.

Few people believed it could be done. In the early 1960s, the U.S. Navy faced a growing logistics problem as aircraft carriers were deployed farther from supply bases than ever before. Existing ...

One nation stands head and shoulders above the rest in terms of its carrier capabilities—though another is quickly catching up. Aircraft carriers are unique symbols of a nation’s military might. The ...