SSN - Tom Clancy [103]
But Cheyenne's mission wasn't just to detect enemy vessels. She was tasked with conducting a search-and-destroy mission for any Chinese submarines and major surface combatants. In order to carry out this mission, Mack decided that once Cheyenne was completely through the strait he would turn around and search the dangerous area around the Chinese coast, which he was sure would be a "target-rich" environment.
Cheyenne's sonar operators listened carefully as she made her transit north. As Mack had guessed, there was little to no Chinese naval traffic on the Taiwan side of the strait-but he did gain one key item of importance, however: they now had an exact location on the Chinese minefield and had plotted at least one safe zone around it. Once again, Mack found himself appreciating the message he'd received from Nimitz. Without that, he might have found himself on the wrong end of a mine's contact "horn."
Cheyenne crossed north of the twenty-fifth parallel, almost into the East China Sea. Two hours later, Mack ordered Cheyenne to periscope depth to have a look around and to check for any incoming SSIXS radio traffic. There were no messages waiting for him and no sign of Chinese surface ships. Mack hoped that this was a good sign.
Once into the East China Sea, Mack ordered the OOD to complete a U-turn, clearing Cheyenne's baffles and also changing course. Moving slowly and silently, he started bringing Cheyenne back down to the south, along the Chinese coast.
Ten nautical mites into their return trip in the strait, Cheyenne detected their first submerged contact.
"Conn, sonar, we've got a sonar contact bearing 242.1 think we've got a Kilo, Captain, running fast on his single six-bladed screw."
The BSY-1 operators went to work immediately, attempting to determine the range to the Chinese submarine contact.
Sometimes that process was excruciatingly slow. Sometimes it went very quickly. This was one of the quick ones.
"We've got it," one of the BSY-1 operators said. "Range is 39,000 yards. It's running at sixteen knots, course 145."
"Increase speed to eight knots," ordered Mack. "Man battle stations, torpedo." Mack knew he would cavitate, but that didn't bother him this time. The Kilo was cavitat-ing also, and he didn't believe that the Chinese submarine would run at flank speed for long, not in twenty-four fathoms of water.
As Cheyenne got closer, the firing solution on the Kilo submarine got better and better. After closing to within 20,000 yards, Mack ordered tubes one and two made ready, and both torpedo tube outer doors were opened.
The range to the Kilo had been closing slowly, but after Mack opened the torpedo tube doors, sonar reported that the Kilo had slowed down, and the range closed more quickly. The BSY-1 computers showed that the Kilo had turned toward Cheyenne. Less than a minute later, sonar had another report for Mack.
"Conn, sonar, the Kilo just went active with its medium-frequency 'Shark Teeth' sonar."
"Shark Teeth" was a NATO nickname for the hull-mounted passive/active sonar carried by the Chinese Kilos.
As soon as the Chinese Kilo went active, Mack had no choice. Cheyenne had been discovered. "Match sonar bearings and shoot, tubes one and two, Master 112," he ordered.
"Match sonar bearings and shoot, tubes one and two, Master 112, aye, sir."
Cheyenne had been through this many, many times in the past several weeks, but each new action still carried an edge of tension. The crew performed as well as always, however, and it wasn't long before Mack received the report, "Tube one fired electrically," and, seconds later, "tube two fired electrically."
Mack acknowledged the report.
"Conn, sonar, both units are running hot, straight, and normal."
On board the Kilo, the American Mk 48 torpedoes appeared to come out of nowhere. The Kilo had begun using its active sonar in an effort to detect any possible sonar contacts. This