SSN - Tom Clancy [109]
Once Cheyenne submerged, Mack reversed her course to the south. He had decided that the squeeze of the shallow water of the Formosa Strait would be too much if they continued to the north submerged. Besides, the RORSAT deception was OBE (overcome by events) by now. If it didn't work, it didn't work. The rest was up to Cheyenne's sonars and their extraordinary operators.
Mack also ordered the ship to periscope depth until they were clear of the shallow water. He would remain in the control room with the navigator and the OOD-who, along with Mack himself, were the officers with the greatest responsibility-to prevent bottoming.
"Conn, sonar, we have that Chinese Komar bearing 355, emerging from our starboard baffles. Designate Master 123."
"Conn, ESM, the Komar's radar is painting the Type 18, signal strength three."
Mack ordered the chief of the watch to "man battle stations, Harpoon." He followed that with the order to the torpedo room to change the load of torpedo tube one to Harpoon. Torpedo room personnel were already rearranging stows to get one of the Harpoons lined up.
Mack elected not to expend Mk 48s on the Komar. Cheyenne would launch the Harpoon on ESM bearings while continuing to the south, an "over-the-shoulder" launch that Mack had loved practicing in the fire-control trainer.
Five minutes later, the Harpoon was loaded and tube one made ready. After Mack ordered ESM bearings matched and the Harpoon fired, he saw it depart the water ahead of the ship and execute its sweet turn to starboard, racing toward the bearing of the Komar. The Harpoon hardly had time to accelerate to its maximum speed before the seeker found its target, crashing into the bridge of the Komar, tearing it in two as the missile's momentum and its explosive combined to create total destruction. A flash in the night, then nothing, as if the Komar had literally disintegrated.
After a day's quiet transit, Cheyenne arrived in the first patrol area. Located two hundred nautical miles east of Macclesfield Bank, Mack had decided this would be the most likely Typhoon patrol area.
On arrival near the northeast corner of the area, Mack ordered the OOD to launch an SSXBT. The information it gathered on temperature versus depth through the water column would be sent by wire to the BSY-1 for use by the sonar and fire-control systems. It also would provide layer-depth information, which Mack wanted. He could use that data to allow Cheyenne to effectively hide beneath the layer, or even a second deeper layer.
During dinner in his wardroom-a dinner they all ate quickly-Mack addressed his officers. "We have our work cut out for us again. With quiet Akulas and the Typhoon staring us in the face, we'll need to be even more innovative in our attacks than we were when we went up against the seven Akulas. We'll have to flush out both the Akulas and the Typhoon."
They had gotten a break earlier. Sonar had reported weak tonals from an Akula to the south, the same tonals as had been detected on the only Akula to have gotten away from her in the Paracels. Apparently, running out of assets, the Chinese had been able to do nothing else but assign that one and the remaining inter-fleet transfer ones to the Typhoon's protection.
This was fine with Mack. Not only did it give him a second shot at that Akula, but this one was a dead giveaway, if the Typhoon were nearby.
The initial range had been established at roughly 80,000 yards in the third convergence zone by the section fire-control tracking party. This time. Mack would wait until he ordered the OOD to man battle stations, torpedo. There was still nothing from the other Akulas or the Typhoon. Just the lone set of low-frequency tonals. These were coming from the same one with sound shorts to its turbine generator.
Just in case the other Russian submarines were