After World War II (1939–1945), military naval aviation enjoyed great prestige. Naval aviation acts for the benefit of a naval force or in subsidiary activities of a navy. It can exist as land-based aircraft but operating at sea; rotary wing aircraft operating from ships such as cruisers; or fixed or rotary wing aircraft operating specifically from aircraft carriers. In World War II, aircraft carriers replaced battleships as the backbone of large naval forces. In the Battle of the Atlantic, both carrier and land-based aviation were decisive instruments in anti-submarine warfare. Although naval aviation can be defined as organic (maintained, piloted and commanded) of navies, aircraft carriers created the belonging problem of embarked aviation between navies and air forces.
