Big-E said:
AU has operated carriers before and taking from US doctrine shouldn't be too difficult. The main thing a CBG needs is AEGIS and Australia will have that in the SEA 4000 Air Warfare Destroyers. These destroyers will be a perfect defense of an Aussie CBG. I think one CBG would be great for any emergency that might arise, I'm not advocating that Australia become a major naval power but keep its 1 carrier in a state of constant readiness. If she doesn't cruise all the time she would be ready to go rather quickly. Since AU is building SEA 4000 anyway, it wouldn't be too hard to scrap up a CBG if they had a carrier.
You are saying that subs are good enough for offensive strike, what would you do if an RIN CBG lead by ex-Admiral Gorshkov attacked Christmas Island with a landing force. They would have air superiority in 5 minutes. AU sends subs and are wiped out by Helix dipping-sonar and ATVs. The F/18s won't have sufficient range to interdict b/c the tankers won't be able to get close enough. The P-3 Orions would get shot down for sure without air-cover. The surface fleet of Perth DDGs and Perry frigates would be sitting ducks for an Indian air-strike. The lack of an Aussie CBG in this scenerio means they lose.
Why on EARTH would India invade Christmas Island? Do they have an overwhelming need for limited quantities of phosphate, perhaps??? Do they have an insatiable urge to control the 350 people who live there or some fanatical desire to re-open the Casino that died there due to a lack of business? Perhaps they insanely desire 50 square kilometres of pristine bushland???
Okay, assuming they did it anyway, (because the Indian Government was insane), here's a few things to take into consideration. There is only 1 airstrip on Christmas Island and it's not long enough to operate fighters and not designed to handle heavy cargo aircraft.
There is a massive reef surrounding Christmas Island, which would make landing any amphibious force an extremely tricky proposition, not that you need an amphibious landing force, you could simply pull up alongside the island and have you're military "swim" to shore. There is no military capability on the island whatsover. There is also NO infrastructure on Christmas Island, capable of supporting an invasion force, once they arrived there.
It is about 1500k's North West of RAAF base Learmonth, meaning it is within patrol range of F/A-18 fighters, provided adequate tanking could be provided. It is easily within AP-3C Orion patrol range, as well as RAN Frigate/Submarine range.
Any Indian taskforce headed for Christmas Island would be detected far before they reached Christmas Island. Australia possesses a highly capable "over the horizon" radar system which covers Christmas Island and roughly 1000 - 2000k's beyond. By the time India has it's carrier in-service, RAAF will possesses a fleet of highly capable AWAC's aircraft which would also detect this fleet and be used to direct our response.
RAN Submarines would probably not even bother attacking it. They would concentrate on the 3000k+ supply line India has to try and support this expedition. Sinking the majority of the Indian merchant fleet, would be a bigger blow to India than an invasion of Christmas Island would be to Australia... Australia's Collins Class submarines are widely regarded as amongst the most capable "conventional" submarines in the world. They have penetrated the USN ASW fleet on numerous occasions and "sunk" US Carriers. They are so quiet they often have to fire flares during exercises, to allow opposing forces to locate them. Penetrating this Indian fleet, is not going to be a major problem.
The Indian fleet would also be subject to JASSM attacks by our F/A-18 fleet. Good luck attempting to survive THAT, combined with Collins Class sub attacks for long. We'll have JASSM in-service by 2009, along with upgraded Collins subs (Mk 48 mod 7 ADCAP torps, Sub-Harpoon missiles and Raytheon AN/BYG-1 combat systems, same as that used on USN SeaWolf and Virginia class subs). Will India's carrier and her MiG29K's be operational by then? Maybe, maybe not.
Either way ANY maritime fleet is going to have a bast*rd of a time attempting to deal with stealthy cruise missile attacks and sub attacks. Our standoff weapons project is going to acquire between 300-400 JASSM missiles. Our missiles are going to be equipped with the newly developed data-link system, and "maritime" engagement modes. Good luck defending against these stealthy cruise missiles which will be fired from more than 300k's away, whilst attempting to deal with Collins subs and RAN surface elements AT THE SAME TIME.
Your situation, unfortunately doesn't allow for "concentration of force" an all important military strategy that is often overlook in these sorts of scenario's...