I think you misunderstand what i said when i say "
you need an air control platform to pick up and attack enemy air in a given AO, which PN currently lacking this ability"
I do not mean the AWACS or EWACS. but a platfrom to perform multi-dimension attack instead of a point to point attack.
You are indeed correct, if you are talking solely a naval engagement. a JF-17/P-3C/F-22P can provded a good solution in a sole Combine Naval Engagement, but when you factor in Air Engagement and the need for ground support. The JF-17/P-3C/F-22P will not cut it.
JF-17, along with all other Air Asset is only point to point (1-Dimension) able. That mean if you pick up a Squadron of bandit coming over, you send a squadron of your own JF-17 to counter them, but you cannot send 1 Sqn of JF-17 to deal with 2 Sqn of Enemy fighter, nor can you send the same JF-17 to one end of the Map and deal with an enemy Sqn of fighter and at the same time you want that same sqn of JF-17 to deal with a naval threat on the otherside of the map. Hence JF-17 is a 1-Dimension attacker.
What i was saying is a force multiper stuff. You put a OHP near your coast, and it can detect 400 incoming target and attack 40 at the same time, be that Naval Threat (enemy Naval Aviation) or Air Threat (enemy Air Force), at the same time, you can use the Mk-13 to launch ASM missile and engage Surface Target or Naval Target (Ship), and finally the ASW capability mean you can do all that, when you are hunting subs. Which is a 3-dimension attack.
In any combine ops, Air Force are needed in all circumstance, CAS, CAP and Naval Support. However, each plane can only do one thing at a time, and unless you have more Aircraft than your enemy, you cannot do them all.
I am not saying you definitely need OHP, but OHP is currently the cheapest choice you can get in the market. Everything is a money problem. How much money you can afford to pay vs what you can buy with that money. Currently other than OHP, the other choice is to buy brand spanling new frigate, or make your own, both choice seems impossible for now.
And Aussie OHP is due to decom in 2016, when the hobart class enter service