Aircraft cruiser

These ships had their main armament of 4x twin 8" gun turrets placed forward of the superstructure, and an aircraft handling deck was built aft of the funnel.

During World War II, in part to offset the loss of carriers at the Battle of Midway, Japan rebuilt its Ise-class battleships as hybrid carriers, placing the flight deck and hangar aft to replace the rear turrets, while retaining their main guns forward and amidships.

This is in contrast to surface warships such as cruisers, destroyers, and frigates which have basic aviation facilities, including a hangar and landing pad, that are sufficient only for 1–2 light/medium helicopters.

In 1980, there was a proposed “Interdiction Assault Ship” (IAS) conversion for the Iowa-class battleships that would have removed the aft main gun turret.

This would free up space for a V-shaped ramped flight deck (the base of the V would have been on the ship's stern, while each leg of the V would extend forward, so that planes taking off would fly past the ship's exhaust stacks and conning tower), while a new hangar would be added with 2 elevators, which would support up to 12 Boeing AV-8B Harrier II jump-jets.

These modifications would have required significant time and funding to achieve so it was never carried out, furthermore the Department of Defense and the Navy wanted the Iowa battleships reactivated as quickly as possible.

The Kuznetsov class is classified as heavy aviation cruisers, reflecting their greater weight as well as the larger number of aircraft they can operate.

Their classification as aircraft cruisers is very important for the purposes of international law, as it allows them to transit the Turkish Straits on their way into the Mediterranean Sea.

[4] Turkey has always allowed Soviet and Russian aviation cruisers to transit the Straits, and no other signatory to the Montreux Convention has challenged the ships' classification.

The Royal Navy's Invincible-class aircraft carriers were originally termed "through-deck cruisers" for political reasons (the CVA-01 project had recently been cancelled).