SSN - Tom Clancy [14]
Reading the message a second time, he gave the order to turn Cheyenne and head full speed toward the destroyer's reported position. In the absence of a formal declaration of war, the Chinese government would undoubtedly brand the destroyer a renegade. Which was fine with Mack. He intended to bring them to justice American style.
Twenty-six hours later Cheyenne received her second surprise. They had picked up a target, but it wasn't the destroyer. Instead, there was another signal masking the one they'd expected.
Sonar quickly identified it as a diesel submarine, Romeo class. The Chinese submarine must have been having a problem with her snorkeling system because she was recharging her batteries on the surface-and making a tremendous amount of diesel noise in the- process. It was another two hours before they picked up the Luda destroyer running at about thirteen knots.
Mack ordered battle stations manned. "Quite a day for going hunting, don't you think?" he said to the diving officer.
"Sure is, Captain. It's not often you find an enemy submarine on the surface with its pants down like this one."
For targets such as these, the Harpoon surface-to-surface missile-or, in this case, submarine-to-surface missile-was without a doubt the weapon of choice, especially since both the Chinese submarine and the destroyer were operating so noisily. Cheyenne was able to determine their positions precisely and easily, something that was highly uncommon at this distance.
"Conn, sonar. Master 11 is bearing 013. Master 12 is bearing 002." Master 11 was the Romeo-class submarine; Master 12 was the destroyer. Neither of them had any idea what was about to be sent their way.
Over the next ten minutes, the BSY-1 computers were able to determine rough ranges of forty-three nautical miles to Master 11, and forty-two nautical miles to Master 12. Cheyenne didn't need the actual range. As long as the targets were within reach of the Harpoons, it was the accurate bearings that counted.
Mack was pleased with the target acquisitions. "Torpedo room," he called from the conn. "Remove the torpedoes and reload tubes two, three, and four with Harpoons. Leave an ADCAP in tube one."
The response was immediate. "Remove the torpedoes and reload tubes two, three, and four with Harpoons, leave an ADCAP in tube one, aye, sir."
Mack would have loved to shoot off all four of his Harpoon missiles, but that was cowboy tactics. The two known targets were making so much noise that he had to keep in mind the possibility that there was a third-and much more quiet-enemy in the area. He needed to keep one torpedo ready to shoot in case he ran into one of the remaining Han class attack submarines they knew about-or, worse, an enemy they didn't know about and weren't prepared for.
The Luda destroyer was the bigger target, and it was more mobile than the surfaced Romeo class submarine. Mack decided to target two Harpoons to the Luda and only one to the submarine. At his command, Cheyenne decreased speed and began to creep silently through the water.
"Tubes two, three, and four are loaded with Harpoons," reported the combat system officer. Cheyenne was now ready to fire her missiles.
The UGM-84, the submarine-launched variant of the Harpoon, came "wrapped" inside a buoyant capsule that was shaped to fit inside a torpedo tube. Upon firing, the UGM-84 would rise to the surface and, after ejecting the nose to the capsule, would ignite its rocket booster. Then, after dropping its booster, the Harpoon's turbojet engine would light off and the missile would accelerate on course toward its target. As the UGM-84 neared its target, the radar seeker head would switch on and the Harpoon would commence its final approach.
For this mission, Mack ordered each Harpoon programmed to make a "pop-up" maneuver