Ssn (1996)

by Clancy, Tom

  The Mao captain was too busy listening in the direction of his own torpedoes and the frantically racing Los Angeles to notice that four Mk 48 ADCAPs were inbound toward his position.

  Cheyenne’s first two torpedoes acquired the Mao just as the first two Chinese torpedoes struck Los Angeles. The Mao never heard Mack’s weapons, as the remaining two Mk 48s acquired the hostile submarine at the same time Los Angeles was finally destroyed by the last four Mao torpedoes.

  The sound of the explosions—two, followed by four, followed by two, and then by two more—was incredible, and more than the Cheyenne sonar men could withstand. They all took off their headsets, turned down the speaker volume, and watched their sonar consoles illuminate.

  Mack kept all hands at battle stations and proceeded to take Cheyenne to test depth as a salute to their lost ship-mates aboard Los Angeles. Submariners at sea around the world had done this same thing as soon as they had been informed that Thresher and Scorpion were lost at sea with all hands aboard.

  Mack didn’t have to say anything to the crew. They knew. The sound of the explosions through the hull told them at least one submarine had died out there. The down angle as Cheyenne headed for test depth told them who it had been.

  Only President Jiang and his two bodyguards didn’t understand, and Mack was in no mood to tell them.

  The ocean was now quiet, except for the occasional “hull popping” as Cheyenne slowly descended, heading south toward the safety of deep water. Only when she had leveled out at test depth did Captain Mackey pick up the 1MC. He’d always thought holding memorial services for a lost crewman was the hardest job he’d ever face, but conducting memorial services for an entire ship was much harder.

  Then Cheyenne pitched slowly to a gentle up angle and her hull started popping again as Mack came shallower, turning back to the north to look for the last Akula. He wouldn’t find it, though. The explosions of the other two Akulas had caused enough overpressure damage that the last Akula captain had been forced to emergency-surface and limp from the area.

  As Cheyenne approached the time for coming shallow near the shelf, sonar reported numerous merchant ship contacts, but still no submarine contacts. As usual, biologics hindered the search, and they could not gain any contact on an Akula as Cheyenne entered shallow water, heading west to deliver her precious cargo. Battle stations were secured and both towed arrays were housed at the one hundred-fathom curve.

  Mack had the feeling that Cheyenne had faced her last opponent and that they were out of trouble, but he didn’t let his guard down. It was only a feeling, and he knew he still needed to be on the lookout for mines.

  Finally back at periscope depth, Mack sent his message traffic concerning the battles and the loss of Los Angeles. The ESM operator reported communications from a Chinese HF radio to the north. Acting on a previous thought that he had kept to himself, Mack asked if the Chinese president would mind translating something for them. When the tape of the comms was delivered to the wardroom and played for President Jiang, a smile spread quickly over his face.

  “Captain Mack, that is the commanding officer of the last of Yu’s Akulas. He reported he was damaged and he is heading for Zhanjiang Naval Base on the surface to ask for amnesty from the Jiang Zemin government for himself and his men.”

  Since the weather was calm, Mack decided to surface Cheyenne and follow the Akula into Zhanjiang Naval Base. This time he allowed President Jiang on the bridge, giving him a hand-held HF radio so that he could act as interpreter for Mack in discussions with the Chinese captain of the Akula. Mack advised the Akula CO that Cheyenne would follow him into port from the Akula’s stern, but that he had one Mk 48, one Harpoon, and one Tomahawk antiship missile trained directly at him.

  Cheyenne steamed safely into the naval base and delivered her cargo, and then made a slow transit back to Tsoying. En route, the news came that China had formally declared a cease-fire.

  The war was over. The United States, with the help of Cheyenne, had won.

  Mack heard the news with a mixture of joy and sadness—joy that his crew was safe once more, with nothing more than the hazards of the deep to worry about, and sadness at the cost. For however long he remained at sea, the memory of those lost would stay with him.

  United States Naval Officer Receives Chinese “Order of Chairman Mao Tse-Tung”

  November 9, 1997

  Web Posted at 11:00 P.M. EST (1600 GMT)

  From Beijing bureau chief Julie Meyer

  BEIJING (TCN)—In an unprecedented ceremony at China’s South Sea Fleet Headquarters, Zhanjiang Naval Base, Chinese president Jiang Zemin bestowed the coveted “Order of Chairman Mao Tse-Tung” to the commanding officer of the USS Cheyenne (SSN 773) for his valorous efforts in single-handedly devastating the renegade Premier Li Peng’s and General Yu Quili’s submarines, purchased with funds diverted from the Chinese people. Not to be outdone, the President of the United States recalled the commanding officer to the White House.

  President Bestows Medal of Honor on War Hero Submariner

  November 10, 1997

  Web Posted at 2:00 P.M. EST (1900 GMT)

  From Washington chief correspondent Michael Flasetti

  WASHINGTON (TCN)—The President today placed the coveted Medal of Honor ribbon with its large medal around the neck of Captain Bartholomew Mackey, commanding officer of USS Cheyenne (SSN 773). Captain Mackey’s submarine was the single force in Southeast Asia that literally destroyed the Chinese submarine force, accounting for over sixty authenticated kills without sustaining any damage to his own ship. In an unprecedented meeting of Congress prior to the event, Captain Mackey was selected for promotion to rear admiral, lower half, being read into law by the Senate majority leader. This in itself was an unprecedented move on Congress’s part, since the rear admiral selection board, with its congressional confirmation, was months away. And the last officer promotion that Congress had taken out of the hands of the Navy was when they promoted Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, the father of United States Navy Nuclear Propulsion.

  And where is Rear Admiral “Mack” Mackey? A source close to his family, which asked the CIA not to be identified, said that instead of throwing quarters in the lawn to keep the kids out of the house while Mack and his wife renewed their vows, Rear Admiral Mackey and his wife left for the cold and snow of upstate New York, intending on taking part in the Lake Champlain Submarine Team Races, “Frostbite 97,” followed by two weeks of skiing at their chalet. CIA said the source is deemed reliable, since his family is taking care of the Mackey children. And there you have it, so much for CIA secrecy.

  Interview

  Introduction

  Captain Doug Littlejohns, CBE, RN (Ret.), is one of the finest naval officers I have ever met, and I am proud to call him my friend. His distinguished career includes three command tours, HMS Osiris, HMS Sceptre, and HMS London, respectively a diesel-powered submarine, a nuclear fast-attack submarine, and a missile-armed frigate. In addition, Doug was operations officer for NATO submarines in the Eastern Atlantic, Assistant Director of Naval Warfare for U.K. missile submarines, Principal Staff Officer to the Chief of the Defense Staff, Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord David Craig, during the Persian Gulf War, and commanding officer of the Royal Navy’s engineering college, HMS Thunderer. He has seen and done it all. If you want to know why the Navy’s been around for so long, people like Doug are the reason.

  James Adams, who conducted the interview, is also a good friend, and as Washington Bureau Chief of The Sunday London Times is one of the finest writers I know. He writes extensively on U.S. domestic and foreign policy and on such issues as nuclear proliferation and international terrorism.

  James Adams: Tom, Doug, thank you very much for joining me today. Tom, a hallmark of your work is its reality—it’s close to the truth, always on the cutting edge of the political scene. You two have chosen China for SSN as the principal antagonist. Do you see China as a threat to the stability of the world today?

  To
m Clancy: Well, China is a country that doesn’t really know what it wants to be. On the one hand they’re trying to develop a free market economy and give their citizens economic freedom. On the other hand we had Tiananmen Square, where they decided that their citizens could have economic freedom, but not political freedom. This is a considerable imbalance. Moreover, in this particular case, we also have the Spratly Islands. There appear to be considerable deposits of oil there. And you’ll recall that fourteen years ago that was the reason that Argentina went after the Falkland Islands—the thought that there might be oil there that they could exploit. Even though Argentina is currently self-sufficient in oil.

  A war of aggression is really nothing much more than a large-scale armed robbery. Is this scenario plausible? I think it’s quite plausible. Because nations are greedy. Particularly Marxist nations.

  James Adams: Doug, you served out in the Far East as a submariner. Do you agree with that? Was the potential threat posed by China part of the war game that went on when you were out there?

  Captain Doug Littlejohns: I was out there in the mid ’60s. That was at the time of the Indonesia confrontation, and we didn’t really think much about China in those days.

  James Adams: Would you buy the general scenario as seeing China becoming a bigger player on the scene?

  Captain Doug Littlejohns: Oh, very much so. And I think this is an extremely good plot.

  James Adams: Tom, you talked briefly about the Spratlys. Tell me a bit more about them. We’ve read a lot about them, and we know that many nations claim them, and I think that China has landed ships on them. And so have other countries. What exactly is the status of those islands?

  Tom Clancy: The Spratly Islands are kind of like a dead grandfather with a heck of a big estate. And everybody wants to claim to be the number-one heir. In fact, I think that China’s territorial claim to the Spratlys is fictitious.

  James Adams: Tenuous at best.

  Tom Clancy: Especially given their location. But they’re such inhospitable pieces of real estate that whoever can get there, plant a flag, and defend it is going to own them.

  James Adams: And you think that this scenario, where China is an aggressor because of political instability internally, might be a realistic driver in the near future?

  Tom Clancy: Well, historically, a nation with internal problems will externalize. And nothing draws a country together like an external threat. Or a perceived external threat. It’s the classical method historically to unite a country.

  James Adams: Doug, you have tremendous experience in submarines. This is a story about submarines. We’re in a post-Cold War world now. We devoted a great deal of energy to dealing with the potential threat from the Soviet submarine fleet. But now we’re in a different environment. What do you think is the strategic and tactical role of submarines in the post-Cold War world?

  Captain Doug Littlejohns: It ranges right across the spectrum, starting obviously with the major strategic use of a submarine—which is to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles. But in this situation, the submarine can be used strategically by taking up a position off an enemy area. Its existence is then made known to the enemy. We had a very good example of that in the ’70s when Argentina was making noises about the Falklands. We dispatched an SSN down there, and we told them it was there. And that put off the business for a few years.

  James Adams: But in that particular situation, Argentina had no counter force to combat that. They weren’t capable really of dealing with the submarines that we had. That’s not the case with China, where they have a pretty extensive anti-submarine warfare capability.

  Captain Doug Littlejohns: Well, they have an anti-submarine warfare capability. I don’t think you can put it in the same league as the anti-submarine capability of NATO nations or, indeed, of the former Soviet Union. So for the game—and for reality—the technical superiority of the U.S. submarine force far outweighs the capability that China, on its own today, could put against them.

  James Adams: In other words, the submarines that the Americans can field are quieter and faster than the capability of the Chinese to find with their sonars and other technologies.

  Captain Doug Littlejohns: Yes. At this stage. But the world always moves on.

  I think that for the scenario that we’re looking at here—which isn’t cast in today’s technological climate—the American submarines would have a pretty good time against their ASW forces.

  James Adams: Tom, do you think that the Chinese Navy would have any realistic chance against the United States? They have a lot of numbers but not much capability, and there’s a huge technological gap between the two.

  Tom Clancy: One of the things you have to remember about combat is that it’s not really a technical exercise. It’s a human exercise, and a psychological exercise. It’s not machine against machine, it’s person against person. And we all too often overlook that. The difference between a good navy and a bad navy is the quality in the training of its personnel. You know, better to have good men in bad ships than bad men in good ships. If the Chinese decide to make it a national goal to upgrade their Navy—and, of course, they don’t really have a Navy; it’s the Naval Branch of the People’s Liberation Army—but if they decided to really invest some time and money in it to develop the capabilities they need, they could indeed be quite formidable.

  China does have a maritime history that we all too often forget.

  James Adams: But they’ve been trying to upgrade land, sea, and air for some years now. They’ve invested a lot of money, and a lot of people. But they’ve not been able to bridge that technological gap between the United States and the NATO forces and what they currently have. They have a lot of things, but can they take that training and that technology and bring them together to make it effective, do you think?

  Tom Clancy: The fundamental power base of any country is its economy. China has a very rapidly growing economy. They’re making computers. They’re making all manner of products, which can be sold worldwide. If they can do that, they can make damn near anything.

  James Adams: So do you think that today we treat China with kid gloves that are perhaps inappropriate? Do you see them as a threat, as some people would argue, for the stability of the world?

  Tom Clancy: I don’t know that I would go quite that far. Probably the country at greatest risk from Chinese aggression would be Russia, the former Soviet Union.

  Do we treat China in a way which causes me difficulty? Yes. When Deng Xiaoping stomped on the demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, we should have done something, for two reasons: First of all, America should not do business with countries that do such things to its own citizens. Moreover, and this is something frequently overlooked, that act was deliberately taken in the knowledge that Bernie Shaw and CNN were filming it—or sending it out live at the time—on global television. They were, indeed, therefore telling the world, “Drop dead. This is the way we do business and if you don’t like it, that’s too bad.” I question the ethics of doing business as usual with a country that is so grossly repressive as the People’s Republic of China.

  James Adams: Doug, in SSN we have a very realistic portrayal of what it’s like to be in command of a submarine. Something that you have done. Can you tell me a bit about what sort of training goes in to make a commander? What is looked for, psychologically and in practical terms, in somebody who can deliver?

  Captain Doug Littlejohns: First of all, the game is designed to put the player outside the submarine, if you like, to envisage the tactical situation around him in his mind’s eye. And to have a pictorial representation of that. That is where the game is unique. Nothing like this has been done before. As for what makes a good submarine commander, that is really almost impossible to quantify properly.

  James Adams: You go on a course in England called the Perisher Course, don’t you?

  Captain Doug Littlejohns: Oh, yes.

  James Adams: What do they make you do in that course?

>   Captain Doug Littlejohns: First of all, there’s a big weeding out process before you ever get to that point. Lots of people want to be submariners, but when they get there they find they don’t like the way of life or the hours they have to keep.

  James Adams: What about claustrophobia?

  Captain Doug Littlejohns: I’ve only ever seen one member of a submarine who suffered from claustrophobia. In the main, you just don’t experience it. Human beings are very adaptable. By the time what we call in the Royal Navy the submarine Perisher comes along, most people are well imbued into submarines. Then it’s a question of whether they’ve got both the stamina and the mental acuity—the particular ability to remember a tactical picture after having glanced at it only very briefly. With the submarine tossing around, maneuvering all over the place, it’s very difficult to still be able to know where the various components of that tactical picture are.