[SamAdams76]

It's hard to find a photo that does justice to the armada required to protect a single aircraft carrier. Even in this photo, there are additional ships further out.

Yes, aircraft carriers are sitting ducks without a protective armada around them. The key to protecting U.S. carriers is that nobody gets close to one that not a friendly. Potential threads are identified and tracked hundreds of miles away.

[Antoninus]

That photos is not a carrier battlegroup, btw. It appears to be an international training cruise with two CVNs and three other smaller carriers/amphibious assault ships, probably from Japan. This is a better illustration: