SSN - Tom Clancy [101]
"Conn, sonar," the sonar supervisor said, "we have active sonars indicating that there are two Hainan fast attack craft-high-frequency sonars."
With the section fire-control tracking party manned, the BSY-1 computers began to get the information needed to determine Cheyenne's range to the targets.
"Conn, sonar, the active sonars are very far away. This is very probably a convergence-zone contact. According to our calculations, they are pinging from over thirty nautical miles away."
"Sonar, conn, aye," responded Mack for the OOD. "Keep tracking those contacts."
Mack didn't intend to do anything about the Hainans-not unless he had to. He still wanted to stay silent and undetected, if possible. On the other hand, he couldn't afford to arrive at their destination tailed by a bunch of angry Chinese patrol craft.
Mack needn't have worried-at the moment, anyway. The Chinese patrol craft knew nothing of Cheyenne's transit north. They had gone active to test out their equipment, not because they suspected there was a U.S. SSN in the area. The Chinese craft, built in the early 1960s, had recently been fitted with a new active sonar and their captains often enjoyed using this during training exercises. Their upcoming mission, however, was anything but a training exercise. The two Chinese Hainan class fast attack craft had been fully loaded with twelve mines, and when they reached their assigned location they would begin deploying these naval mines from their mine rails. After they had evaluated their new sonars, the Chinese captains would continue on their assigned mission.
After fifteen minutes of tracking the Hainan attack craft, Cheyenne's sonars lost contact with the two Chinese boats. They reacquired the two patrol craft as Cheyenne began to enter the strait.
Mack had gone back to the sonar room. After reporting the contacts to the OOD, the sonar supervisor said, "Captain, we've just acquired the two Chinese craft again. They must have gone up the eastern coast of China. Bearing is 355."
Mack went back to the control room. "Do you have the range to the Chinese active sonars yet?" Mack asked. "Not yet, Captain, but we should have it ready soon," the OOD answered. He had worked hard with his section fire-control tracking party, perfecting their technique, and he was proud of them.
Less than a minute later the section fire-control tracking party had an answer to Mack's question. "Range is 68,000 yards, Captain." "Conn, sonar, our Chinese contacts have stopped pinging, sir," the sonar supervisor said. "I'll bet that they're laying mines."
The two Chinese craft were nearly forty miles to the north of Cheyenne. One by one their Russian-designed MAG moored contact mines were pushed over and dropped into the water via the mine rails aboard the small craft. These mines were based on technology that was nearly one hundred years old, but they still presented a serious threat to Cheyenne.
"Mark that area as a minefield," Mack said, pointing to the area on the plotting table where they believed the Chinese ships to be operating. "If at all possible, we want to stay clear of that zone."
"Aye, Captain," said the auxiliary electrician forward as he looked up from his plot. He was the plotter for his watch section, and, like all the sailors on board Cheyenne, he took pride in his performance and his professionalism.
Mack did not know what types of mines were being laid in the Formosa Strait, but he did know that even the most basic, least expensive underwater pressure-sensitive mines could limit his operation. He hated to think that the Chinese could be laying some of the more advanced bottom-moored influence and acoustic mines by the U.S. Navy.
For now at least, although Mack didn't know it, the Chinese preferred the low-cost mines to the high-tech, expensive ones,