MIRVs, moving carrier groups, and nuclear escalation

How do MIRVs affect navies, and how can a carrier strike group be protected from them?

Aegis defenses help, but no shield is total; moving dispersed ships complicate targeting, and the launch itself risks catastrophic nuclear misinterpretation and escalation.

Aegis destroyers provide the proposed defence, with no guarantee that a carrier group would escape every casualty. A carrier strike group spreads across a wide area and moves continuously, so multiple warheads must cover a large predicted target zone. Reentry plasma and extreme speed make late targeting updates difficult. The greater strategic danger is ambiguity: an American president may see ballistic missiles rising and have to decide whether they are aimed at carriers or at the United States' nuclear forces. That uncertainty can turn an anti-ship attack into general nuclear exchange before defenses such as Aegis are tested.