Well for one thing Poppy and his so called military genius Cheney decommed a bunch of S-3's in 1992's budget. The rest at least most were later retired. S-3's and onboard anti-sub helo's are the primary sub detectors for carriers. Only one carrier was built with a sonar dome and the was a KH Class the AMERICA. Even the sonar dome on it was taken out IIRC in a mid 1980's overhaul. It was used when I was onboard though as I slept at waterline aft and remember hearing it pinging all night long at sea.
KITTY HAWK was in her work up operations area as she is homeported out of Japan. It would be the same as if an east coast carrier was off VACAPES or down at GITMO doing work ups.
That being said our posture with China is too appeasing and accommodating with them IMO. They should have MFNTS revoked and U.S. corporations should be encourage to withdrawl their interest there. Any trade with China is quickly becoming a nail in our national coffin. Both the Bush's and Clinton policies have put trade ahead of our national security when dealing with China. The Bush family dealings on behalf of China concern me as much as the Clinton family ones did. Neither one was a good idea.
We also need another permanent Naval Base in the south Pacific to replace Subic Bay and close the one in the M.E. for obvious security reasons. We are making a very major mistake there letting carriers pier berth there. Perth would be the safest security wise and has been a long standing emergency ship yard port & U.S. carrier friendly.
We also need to return to at least a modified Cold War posture and about two thirds Reagan era strength in all armed forces. It's also sad only one man running for POTUS is actually even addressing this type of issues.
I wonder what happened to Singapore offering to base one of our fleets. Probably a more convenient location than Perth, though it might have been more convenient for the enemy as well.