by Tom Clancy
When the fire-control coordinator was satisfied with the TMA solutions, he informed Captain Mackey. Mack then directed that all tubes be made ready, and opened the outer doors on tubes one and two. This time he would take no chances. Another submarine was out there, waiting. He could feel it.
“Sonar, conn. Keep your ears open after we shoot tube one. You might be able to hear an enemy submarine flooding its tubes and opening the doors. Hopefully we can get off a shot before he does.”
“Conn, sonar, aye.”
“Firing point procedures, tube one, Master 62.”
The range, speed, and course of the target were verified and the torpedo from tube one sped toward the first merchant container ship. The sonar supervisor and his operators all strained to catch the first indication of another submarine reacting to Cheyenne’s torpedo launch.
“Conn, sonar. Noise bearing 250. Sounds like… yes, sir. It’s a submarine flooding his tubes. He’s preparing to launch!”
“Sonar, conn. Stand by.” Mack designated the new contact Master 65 and then ordered, “Match sonar bearing and shoot, tube two, Master 65.”
“Conn, sonar. Standing by.”
“Match sonar bearing and shoot, tube two, Master 65, aye, sir,” the combat systems officer completed the repeat back.
“Conn, sonar. Unit from tube two is running hot, straight, and normal. Target is turning and increasing speed.”
“Sonar, conn. Did he launch?”
“Conn, sonar, negative, sir. Our torpedo has already acquired the target and he is increasing speed. It’s another Romeo, Captain.”
In the control room, all hands were silent as the narrative from sonar followed the pursuit of the enemy submarine by Cheyenne’s torpedo.
“Conn, sonar. Master 65 has launched countermeasures.”
At the weapons control console, the combat systems officer indicated that he had heard the report and informed Mack that the torpedo was still under positive wire-guidance control. The decoys would not work as long as Cheyenne could continue to steer the torpedo past the countermeasures.
“Conn, sonar. Impact on Master 65. Multiple explosions. It’s gone, sir.”
Before Mack could acknowledge that report the sonar supervisor added, “Conn, sonar, explosion on the bearing of Master 62. It’s breaking up, Captain.”
“Sonar, conn, aye. Good work, everyone. Firing point procedures, tube three, Master 63, and tube four, Master 64. Shut the outer doors on tubes one and two, and reload tubes one and two.”
“Conn, sonar. The escorts have all increased speed and are shifting to cover the forward arc of the convoy. They must have heard their friends get hit.”
“Sonar, conn, aye. Fire control, are we still out of their detection range?”
“Yes, sir. We’re well beyond their range.”
“Very well,” Mack replied.
The fire-control coordinator informed the captain that course, speed, and range were verified for targets Masters 63 and 64. Mack prepared to give the shoot order.
“Conn, sonar. The escorts have suddenly changed course toward the northeast. They are all maneuvering to the port quarter of the convoy.”
“Sonar, conn, aye.” Then Mack asked, “Do the BSY-1 computers show any indication of what’s going on?”
“Not yet, Captain,” answered the fire-control coordinator.
“Conn, sonar. Sounds like there’s another Romeo out there closing on us at high speed from the direction of the escorts.”
“Conn, sonar. Captain… my God, sir! They’re shooting at their own submarine! One, two, five torpedoes are in the water. Multiple explosions. Captain, they’re dropping all sorts of ordnance in the water!”
“Sonar, conn. Understand.” Mack could have almost expected that. The convoy was on guard against any submarine contact, and they had mistaken the Romeo for Cheyenne. “Any change in the remaining convoy?” he asked.
“Conn, sonar. Negative. Convoy same as before.”
“Sonar, conn, aye. Match sonar bearings and shoot, tube three, Master 63 and tube four, Master 64.”
“Match sonar bearings and shoot, tube three, Master 63, and tube four, Master 64, aye, sir.”
Mack walked to his stool and sat down to wait as the torpedoes raced toward their destination. With the escorts busy attacking one of their own submarines, there would be less warning than ever of the approaching doom. Not that the convoy itself had ever reacted to their ship’s being torpedoed.
Mack’s attention shifted as a new report came in.
“Conn, sonar. Explosions on the bearings of Masters 63 and 64. They’re going down, Captain.”
“Sonar, conn, aye. Any reaction from the escorts?”
“Conn, sonar. Affirmative. They’re drawing left, turning north. No, wait, sir. The convoy is changing course. Coming starboard. The convoy is changing course to their right.”
“Captain,” the combat systems officer said, “the BSY- 1 computer shows the convoy is turning to the north as well. Ranges to the contacts indicate the escorts are settling in behind the limping convoy.”
Cheers swept through Cheyenne as crew members congratulated one another. They had done it! The convoy was turning and heading for home.
But when the executive officer suggested standing down from battle stations, Mack shook his head. They would remain at their stations while Cheyenne was repositioning to finish that tanker. Mack thought that it might try to get back under way and slip into the Spratlys during the night, if it had not spilled all its tanks’ contents.
As Cheyenne closed on the wounded tanker, Master 60, Mack’s hunch proved correct. The ship was back under way and headed for the Spratly Islands. An Mk 48 from tube one finished the job, however, and soon Cheyenne was headed back towards McKee. It was time to rearm and resupply, and to take a deep breath before it started all over again.
8. Patrol
It was still dark when Cheyenne completed reloading her torpedo tubes and vertical launchers from McKee. The submarine tender was still anchored off the coast of Brunei under the protection of the Independence carrier air cover.
As in their previous refit, on the final day Captain Mackey, his combat systems and operations officers, navigator and communicator, and sonar officer, proceeded to McKee’s war room for their pre-underway briefing, but this time the other officers from Cheyenne also would attend the meeting.
Now that Cheyenne and McKee had established a smooth mini-refit routine, Mack wanted all his officers present. Besides, CTF 74 had requested the remaining officers’ presence at this briefing. Partly because of that, Mack expected this upcoming Patrol 3 to be of more significance, if that were possible, than the previous two.
Mack and his group rendezvoused with the executive officer, engineer officer, and the remaining junior officers outside the war room. He knew the younger officers were all excited and beaming with curiosity, but he also knew he could count on them to maintain a professional decorum during the briefing itself. Nodding at them, he led the way into the war room.
CTF 74, the briefing officer, and McKee’s captain were already seated. When Mack and his group entered, and after they had all exchanged the normal greetings and taken their seats, the briefing began.
Normally, these briefings were a mix of old information and new orders, but this time there was an added element: intel that could not be passed to Cheyenne via flash traffic. This intel — and this briefing — was based on information that involved the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Operatives in Vladivostok and Beijing had determined that the commander-in-chief of the Chinese navy was personally concerned about losses inflicted by Cheyenne on his forces. But that wasn’t the only tidbit the Agency had turned up. They had also learned that, somehow, the Chinese had determined that Cheyenne was the sole SSN responsible. Their best guess was that the Chinese had probably gotten this information through the loose lips of other SSN sailors in port at Yokosuka, but NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) was still
working on that.
That changed the situation for Cheyenne, but it didn’t change her orders. Cheyenne had another war patrol to undertake before any other U.S. SSNs would be assigned to the same arena as Cheyenne.
Mack didn’t react to the news, but it didn’t really bother him. On the one hand, he was just as happy not to have other U.S. SSNs in the area. It certainly made things simpler, without the need for measures to prevent mutual interference with his fellow commanding officers. Besides, the Chinese had already been gunning for Cheyenne. The only thing that had really changed was that until now the Chinese had believed that there were three SSNs operating nearby. Now they knew there was only one—Cheyenne—and they would focus their efforts on hunting her.
The only real downside to Cheyenne operating solo was that she could use help in tracking down just where and how the seemingly never-ending supply of Russian Kilos and Alfas were getting into the hands of the Chinese. Mack couldn’t help thinking that it was almost like the old story that if the Chinese population were to start walking into the sea, the trail of people would be endless, as the reproduction rate far exceeded the destruction rate. Mack grimaced, remembering the story. He knew it was old because for decades the Chinese had been controlling the birth rate, often through inhumane processes.
The briefing officer, continuing on with his report, said that USCINCPAC and CINCPACFLT were not taking the Chinese commander-in-chief’s comments lightly, especially since he had found out that the losses inflicted by Cheyenne had not, in fact, been the work of three SSNs, but could all be blamed on a single boat. Still, Mack’s superiors were more than pleased with Cheyenne’s successes, and were not intimidated by the Chinese commander-in-chief.
With that in mind, and with the utmost faith in Cheyenne, her officers, and her crew, the Oahu admirals’ directives were for Cheyenne to proceed back to the north of the Spratly Islands and establish a patrol routine, shifting per the operations order from one area to another. Soon, maybe in a few weeks, Cheyenne’s sister 688s, USS Columbia and USS Bremerton, would arrive on station. Before then, however, they would have to finish their own surveillance assignments in the Sea of Japan and in the northwest Pacific off Petropavlosk, respectively.
The combat systems officer had earlier briefed the captain that the mix of Tomahawks in the vertical-launch tubes had been changed to a mixture of land-attack missiles only, both TLAM-C and TLAM-D. The TASMs had been removed and replaced with the TLAM-Ds. That was Mack’s first hint about possible action concerning airfields and runways. The TLAM-D version contained bomblets for creating craters, a real nightmare for aircraft trying to take off.
The briefing officer confirmed Mack’s guess. This type of action would be an option once the location of the runways had been confirmed and the imagery processed. Once that happened, Cheyenne would be notified via VLF message traffic over the floating wire and directed to periscope depth where targeting data would be downloaded by satellite directly to Cheyenne’s CCS Mk 2 console. This data would come from the theater mission planning center, located at the IPAC intelligence center in the USCINCPAC compound on Red Hill, Oahu.
Mack kept his face impassive, but he didn’t like that. He would have preferred to have the information added to Cheyenne’s onboard tape library prior to her getting under way, but there simply wasn’t time for that.
Once they reached that point in the operation, the Philippine Island of Palawan would again be used for its TERCOM and DSMAC data, but Cheyenne would have to establish the initial waypoints for the missile flights to Palawan, which would vary depending on her location at the time. That shouldn’t be a problem, however. It was part of the capabilities of the CCS Mk 2 console, a self-contained, onboard mission-planning center.
So far, with the exception of the intel about the Chinese commander-in-chief, the briefing had gone pretty much as Mack had expected, but the briefing officer’s next comments caught him off guard. According to the briefing officer, by the time Cheyenne completed Patrol 3 and returned for reload, the floating drydock Arco would be available as needed.
Mack didn’t like hearing that. He didn’t like entertaining the notion that Cheyenne would suffer sufficient damage to require a floating drydock for repairs. But this was war, he knew, and with the Chinese navy focused on hunting Cheyenne, he just might be all too glad of Arco’s presence.
He was still thinking about that when the executive officer slipped the captain a note with the letters ASDS on it.
Mack nodded, liking the news of Arco even less. He looked over at the briefing officer and asked, “Are there any intentions for Arco to bring the advanced SEAL delivery system, ASDS, out here?”
The CTF 74 admiral answered the question before the briefing officer could speak: “That option has been discussed, Captain. The concern is that although Cheyenne completed the ship alterations for the ASDS and the interface pylon fit checks in San Diego prior to your deployment, the vehicle and your ship have not seen each other.”
Mack nodded. “So the chances are slim for Cheyenne to demonstrate this newest war-fighting capability?” he asked.
“I would say yes,” the admiral replied. “For the time being.”
“That’s a relief, Admiral,” Mack said. “As you know, operations with that vehicle seem to be extremely intricate — especially the landing on my back. We would need some serious training before any prudent submariner would take that on for the first time in the uncontrolled nature of war.”
“I agree, Captain,” the admiral said. “And that concern is precisely what I passed to COMSUBPAC.” He paused briefly before adding, “If the SEALs get involved in this war, and their movements are very tightly secreted by SOCOM (Special Operations Command), we’ll probably find out about it after it has happened — unless the intention is to use Cheyenne.”
Mack was relieved to hear that. Partially, anyway. Losing control of Cheyenne was not part of his destiny — not if he had anything to say about it.
The briefing ended soon after, and when they were back on Cheyenne Mack expressed his concern about the floating drydock to the executive officer. The executive officer agreed. He pointed out that it was the only way for Cheyenne to get dry for removal of fixed ballast — which would be necessary if the heavy ASDS vehicle were to be installed in its planned location. Installing it over the aft escape trunk, which led to the engine room, would put more weight aft than the variable ballast tanks could compensate for.
* * *
“Attention on deck and on McKee,” the OOD announced over the bullhorn from the bridge. “Single all lines.” This order was repeated by the bridge phone talker over the sound-powered phones to the phone talkers on deck, one forward and one aft of the sail.
Within minutes, the bow, stern, and spring lines were singled. When the ordered actions had been completed and the reports had been relayed to the OOD by his phone talker, he ordered, “Cast off the spring lines, lines three and four.”
In peacetime, and under other circumstances, Cheyenne would use her own lines. But this was war. During their very first reload alongside McKee, Mack had ordered that Cheyenne’s line lockers be welded shut. This would prevent any possible noise sources from captive bolts loosening, especially since the chances of encountering torpedo and even depth charge explosions were increasing.
As with the last two war patrols, all lines would be left with McKee, where they would be dried and stored with care until Cheyenne once again returned from her patrol.
“Check the stern line. Keep the slack out of the bow line,” ordered the OOD. He was concerned about maintaining positive control of Cheyenne’s position until the stern was safely clear of the after anchor lines, especially those on McKee’s starboard side. He would not back the main engines until she was clear.
In preparation for this next evolution, the OOD had already extended the secondary propulsion motor (SPM), tested it locally in the engineering spaces and from the ship-control console, and trained it to 090 degrees (relative).
“Helm, conn, start the SPM.” That order came from conn on the sound-powered phones.
When the SPM started, Cheyenne’s stern swung slowly to starboard. Pivoting around the camel between the two ships, the bow moved slowly toward McKee. With the momentum of the 6,900-ton submarine now swinging the stern nicely, the OOD ordered the SPM stopped, trained to 000 degrees, and housed. As the ship continued to swing slowly, the OOD backed the main engines at one-third speed long enough to gain sternway, and just enough to keep the sonar dome from coming too close to McKee’s hull.
At his command, the two remaining lines were cast off, snaking through the water as the McKee line handlers pulled them on board. With the stern line clear of the stern planes, Cheyenne backed safely away from the submarine tender and her after anchors.
Patrol 3 had commenced.
Cheyenne’s first patrol area was centered on a line drawn directly between the Spratly Islands and Cam Ranh Bay. Intel suspected that this was the route that Chinese supply ships were using in keeping the Spratly Islands’ forces supplied and making the new airfield construction possible. Cheyenne was not authorized to attack these supply ships, just to collect intelligence on them. Washington could then use this information against the Vietnamese government for their collaboration with China.
Just to the north of the patrol area, the bottom sloped steadily downward from 1,000 fathoms to over 2,200 fathoms. Mack welcomed this deep water, which would help Cheyenne and her Mk 48s. This would allow them to approach a target from deep below the layer without fear of detection by the shallower-running Alfa, which Mack suspected was lurking to the west of Cuarteron Reef.
Although the Alfa’s titanium hull would actually allow it to dive deeper than Cheyenne, Mack didn’t expect it to do so. The Russians did not typically run deep, and he expected the Chinese, who were learning their Alfa handling techniques from the Russians that built her, to follow the same practices.
Mack hoped that he was right. If he was, Cheyenne would be able to maintain the tactical advantage as long as possible. If he wasn’t… well, then things could get very interesting very fast.
