I’d like to see the carrier, or the whole group, surrounded by hundreds of very small and fast drones. Each of the drones would be armed with .50 cal gatling guns, some kind of missile defense, and torpedo detection with counter measures. The drones would operate in a hive-like structure, sending info to one another about any and all threats to the carrier, instantaneously deciding which drone or drones would engage the threat/s. I like this concept for a couple of reasons. One, incoming threats could initially be dealt with farther from the carrier, and two, a system like this could engage many many threats simultaneously, such as a ‘swarm’ type attack, all done with very little human involvement.
You’re not going to recover those drones. Make them on the cheap and let them fall into the ocean after the mission. They need no weapons, just swarm the attacking missile or aircraft and crash into it or explode with an expanding rod warhead.