The survivability design characteristics of typical carrier-based aircraft, such as F/A-18, are introduced. The general considerations for high survivability design are summed up from the aspects of decreasing susceptibility and vulnerability and increasing battle damage repair capability. According to the operational characteristics of carrier-based aircraft, this paper introduces the susceptibility analysis methods under sea clutter and electronic countermeasure, and the vulnerability analysis method under the traditional weapons. Taking a hypothetical carrier-based aircraft as an example, a numerical survivability analysis is carried out. Results show that the survivability of carrier-based aircraft is obviously improved when adopting such survivability measures as electronic countermeasures, explosion suppression of fuel tank, and pipe self-sealing.