The Intrepid had her bridge blown to the River Kwaii and still had her CIC to make-do as a bridge. Carriers, generally speaking, avoid capital ship combat at all costs. They're a staging point for a seperate element of an attack (fighters). You can't have a carrier trading shots with a destroyer, the carrier is made for deployment of fighters, not face to face confrontation. A good idea for a carrier modification would be to drop mines from some kind of compartment under it's rear bay, to help slow down pursuing enemy capital ships.
I've noticed people on this thread saying how old the Ranger class is. Well, you can't always get a Fleet Carrier or something new and shiny. I'd trust a Ranger far more than a new class carrier since the Ranger has proven it's self time and again. Besides, the age of the carrier has little to do with the type of fighters in her. Would you rather have a Vesuvius-class with nothing but Hornets and Epees or a Ranger with Panthers and Devastators?
The carrier it's self has precious little to do with a stand-up fight, as it relies on it's fighter element for practically everything, not to mention that Rangers are fast little things. Technically, you could jump into a system and drop it's 40 fighters along with a pair of fueling ships and then have the carrier jump back to where it came, have the fighters do their work and then have the carrier jump back in system after the fighting is done.