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In World War II , the United States Navy produced a number of light carriers by converting Cruiser hulls. The Independence Class Aircraft Carrier s, converted from ''Cleveland''-class Light Cruisers , were unsatisfactory ships for aviation with their narrow, short decks and slender, high-sheer hulls; in virtually all respects the Escort Carrier s were superior aviation vessels. The Independence class ships, however, had the virtue of being available at a time when available carrier decks had been reduced to ''Enterprise'' and ''Saratoga'' in the Pacific and ''Ranger'' in the Atlantic. Late in the war, a follow on design to the Independence class, the ''Saipan''-class Light Carrier , was designed. Two vessels in this class, USS Saipan (CVL-48) and USS Wright (CVL-49) , were completed after the war's end. After very brief lives as carriers, the Saipans were converted to command and communication ships.

In the post war period, the British Royal Navy also operated a force of light aircraft carriers, all of which were born out of wartime designs.

Some modern references call the French ''Charles De Gaulle'' a "light carrier," though at 40,000 tons and nuclear powered she dwarfs the vast majority of the world's aircraft carriers with the exception of the American Supercarrier s and the Russian ''Admiral Kuznetsov'' . By the standards of U.S. nuclear aircraft carriers, however, the primary example of which is the 100,000 ton ''Nimitz'' Class , CdG is indeed "light."


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