Do large warships, like aircraft carriers, need to start to stop 15 miles before they want to, as a supertanker does. Why?
No, they don’t.
Tankers are much bigger than carriers The largest tankers are about 3–500,000 tonnes- about 3–5 times the weight of the new Ford class carriers
Ford/Nimitz class carriers have much larger engines, and more substantial steering mechanisms
And they can do this
There is an even more extreme version.
The USS Wisconsin, one of the Iowa class batteships tried a ‘Barn door stop’, by manually moving both rudders in opposite directions to create a huge speed brake. Apparently, it stopped the ship from top speed- 33 knots- to stationary in 600 feet- about 2/3rds of a ship length, at the cost of some rudder damage. It was tried as she was about to be decommissioned, and the Navy didn’t mind breaking stuff in that case.
EDIT: The Wisconsin thing is a sea story. And the difference between a fairy tale and a sea story is one starts “ once upon a time” and the other starts “ No shit”….