Larry Bond - Shattered Trident

“Yes, sir. But it also means he’s turned toward us, ” Thigpen replied with emphasis.

“Yeah, that too,” Jerry conceded. The geometry of the encounter was terrible. Turning to parallel the Akula made the most sense, except that it drove them toward the Yuan. Trailing six thousand yards off the Indian’s starboard quarter meant they risked getting closer, sooner to the Chinese boat. Worse yet, being loosely between the two hostile submarines increased their risk of getting caught in a cross fire.

“OOD, bring us parallel with the Akula, but slow us down to five knots. I need to consult with the XO.”

“Aye, Captain, come right and parallel the Akula, slow to five knots,” acknowledged Iwahashi. Jerry nodded his approval and stepped out of the way. As the junior officer started the course change, Jerry saw Thigpen turn and approach the command workstation.

“Our position stinketh, Skipper,” he lamented.

“It most certainly does, XO, and I don’t think we can get to a better spot before the Akula reaches his firing position. Do you concur?”

“Absolutely. Either we pound his ass now, or we break off and go with Plan B.”

“I’m leaning toward the latter, Bernie. We need to separate ourselves from these two before they start shooting at each other.”

“We could just slow down more and let the Akula pull farther ahead,” Thigpen observed. He placed his finger by the icon representing their boat on the geographic plot display and pulled it back to demonstrate a growing distance.

Jerry considered his XO’s suggestion; it solved the problem with the Akula, but not the other boat. It would take too long to get the desired angular separation. The Chinese captain would likely launch at least one weapon when the Indian reacted to Jerry’s interference. North Dakota could still get caught within the acquisition cone of one of the torpedoes.

“That doesn’t get us far enough away from the Akula, XO,” Jerry said. “Let’s come more to the right. If we steer forty-five degrees off the Indian’s course, we’ll pull away from his position faster, but still keep both targets out of the end fire beams of the towed arrays.”

“Works for me, Skipper,” nodded Thigpen. “Then we can bring Minot in and hit the Akula with her bow mine-hunting sonar. That should scare him off.”

Turning back to the geographic plot display, Jerry noted that Minot was five thousand yards off the Akula’s port quarter and a tad shallower. He’d have to get the UUV to move up along the Akula’s flank if both of the submarines were going to detect the high-frequency pulses.

“All right, XO. Let’s increase Minot’s speed to nine knots and position her off the Akula’s beam. Then turn her to…” Jerry adjusted the position of Minot’s icon with the trackball until it was aligned with the Indian Akula and the Yuan. “… zero two one and have her go active on the bow mine-hunting array. And use the lowest power setting on the acoustic modem. We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves.”

“Increase Minot’s speed to nine knots. When abeam of the Akula, come right to zero two one and have her say, ‘Tag, you’re it,’ aye, sir.”

INS Chakra

“Captain, contact four seven is steady on course two eight zero, speed three knots. Range estimate is six thousand eight hundred meters and closing. We have a good solution,” reported Jain.

“Very well, Number One.” Samant looked at the clock on the bulkhead. It had taken his fire control watch about eight minutes to obtain a firing solution. That was acceptable.

“Bring tubes one, two, seven, and eight to action state,” he ordered. The first two tubes held UGST torpedoes, the second two, MG-84 mobile decoys. Samant was taking no chances. He completely expected the Chinese commander to counterfire once he detected Chakra ’s torpedoes.

“New contact, bearing two three zero, off our port side,” announced the sonar operator over the intercom.

Samant reached for his microphone, while simultaneously spitting out an order to his fire control team. “Begin tracking contact four eight. Be smart about it, Number One.”

Keying the mike, he said, “Sonar, identify new contact.”

“Captain, contact four eight is weak. No discernable bearing drift or tones. Possible submerged contact,” responded the sonar operator.

Another submerged contact, thought Samant. The possibility of an ambush crossed his mind, but that would require a detection and coordination capability well beyond what the Chinese were known to possess. But even if it were just a coincidence, the second contact had shown up at a most inconvenient moment and he had to deal with it.

“Bring tubes three and four to action state. Stand by for deliberate fire, contact four seven. Firing sequence tubes seven, one, and two.”

USS North Dakota

“Captain, Sierra two-nine is flooding tubes and opening outer doors,” said the sonar supervisor.

“Very well, Sonar,” responded Jerry. “XO, command Minot to go active.”

“Aye, sir. Command sent.”

INS Chakra

The acoustic intercept receiver suddenly began wailing its torpedo warning, followed immediately by a panicky voice over the speaker. “Active torpedo, bearing two three zero! Torpedo is close!”

Samant didn’t have time to evaluate the situation; he had to react. Wasting no time, he responded with a fusillade of commands. “Fire tubes seven, one, and two. Rapid fire, contact four eight, tube three. Helmsman, ahead flank, right twenty-five, steer one six zero.”

USS North Dakota

“Torpedoes in the water!” cried the sonar supervisor. “Four weapons were launched!”

“Pilot, ahead standard,” Jerry ordered. “Sonar, where are the torpedoes heading?”

“None are closing, Captain. Two were fired at Sierra three-zero, the Yuan. Another was fired toward Minot. The fourth is heading directly away along Sierra two-nine’s course, possibly a decoy.”

“Very well. Keep a sharp eye on those weapons,” Jerry demanded.

“My God, that boat just barfed out a ton of torpedoes!” exclaimed an impressed Thigpen.

“It helps when you have eight tubes and a rapid-firing system,” Jerry replied dryly.

“Captain, Sierra three-zero has launched an acoustic countermeasure. Sierra two-nine is rapidly changing course to the right. He’s starting to cavitate!”

“Pilot, ahead full!” shouted Jerry.

The fire control party watched the large-screen displays as the tangled weave of sonar contacts quickly began to sort themselves out. The Indian Akula had spun about and headed southward at high speed. The Yuan turned toward the north and retreated as fast as she could, popping more countermeasures in her wake. The Indian torpedoes, jammed by the countermeasures, passed by where the Yuan was and were now spinning about in reattack circles, searching in vain for their target. The one fired at Minot never found its diminutive prey.

Out of the cacophony of noise emerged a lone Chinese Yu-6 torpedo that ran after the Indian’s decoy. Frustrated by the lack of a hull to hit, the Chinese weapon kept making pass after pass as the decoy ran to the northwest.

With all the torpedoes running about to the north, Jerry altered course to follow the Akula, which was still fleeing the scene at thirty-plus knots. Four torpedoes fired, with no hits. Jerry was understandably pleased with his crew’s performance.

“Well done, everyone!” Jerry announced, beaming with pride. “You too, XO,” he added with a wink.

“Gee, thanks, Skipper,” Thigpen responded indignantly. Both men broke out laughing.