During the Falklands war, we didn't have very good naval SAMs worth tuppence - the obsolete Sea Slug, and the then-modern Sea Dart, which still wasn't all that good: 40 mile range, can't hit anything below 30 metres altitude, such as sea-skimming missiles, or even low-flying aircraft.

We now have Aster 30, which has a range of 120 miles, and can hit supersonic sea-skimmers, ballistic missiles, anything you like.

Those ranges are still much shorter than the ~500 mile combat radius of a Sea Harrier or an F-35B, admittedly. But since destroyers are a third the price of a carrier, you can have several and spread them out.