Attack Of The Seawolf

by Michael Dimercurio

  At 1900 ten cruise missiles lifted off from a point at the far west entrance to the channel, their orange flames lighting up the bay as the ten missiles climbed into the clouds and vanished. Immediately Commander Yang ordered the port SS-N-14 quad launcher trained on the position, the range set for forty kilometers, and the battery launched. The first and second Silex missiles were lifting off when the 30-mm six barrel anti-missile guns began to train over to the west. The speaker of the intercom boomed through the bridge.

  “BRIDGE, COMBAT, INCOMING CRUISE

  MISSILES, SEVERAL CONTACTS, INBOUND AT

  SUBSONIC VELOCITY. FIRECONTROL RADAR

  LOCKED ON AND 30-MM GUNS IN AUTOMATIC.”

  Commander Yang acknowledged while the third Silex missile lifted off and climbed to the west, en route to the vessels that had launched the missiles.

  Yang’s binoculars were on the position forty kilometers to the west, where the American submarines, the ones that had launched the hostile cruise missiles, were about to be blown apart.

  “Combat control, bridge,” Yang called on the intercom.

  “Report status of the second leg to the submerged contacts—do we have a firing range set into the computer?”

  At 1906 the sonar operator in the combat control center clicked his microphone to respond, then stopped and listened hard into his headset. He heard a strange screeching noise, then two noises, then five, then seven. His screen filled with angry bright traces, all of them loud and fast. Too late he realized what was on the screen.

  P.L.A navy aircraft carrier shaogvan

  Chu watched as the Harbin helicopters of squadrons one and two lifted off and flew to the west, soon vanishing into the dark and the rain until only their flashing beacons could be seen, then those too were swallowed up by the darkness. As he watched he thought he saw flashes of fire far to the west, beyond the horizon, the cause of the fire not clear in his binoculars.

  He hurried over to his tactical net radio-telephone when the task force commander of the north beat him to it, the radio speaker loud and insistent as the commander’s voice rang out in the room:

  “FLEET FLAG, THIS IS NORTHERN TASK

  FORCE FLAG, WE HAVE MULTIPLE

  LAUNCHES OF ROCKETS FROM THE ENTRANCE

  TO THE CHANNEL FORTY KILOMETERS

  WEST OUR POSITION. MISSILES ARE

  BEING TRACKED NOW. WILL RELEASE

  WEAPONS INTO THE FREE-FIRE ZONE.”

  “Northern Task Force Flag, this is Fleet Flag. Release weapons to the west and report incoming missile status.”

  “FLEET FLAG, THIS IS NORTHERN TASK

  FORCE FLAG, INCOMING MISSILES ARE SEA LAUNCHED CRUISE MISSILES. WE

  CAN

  KNOCK THEM DOWN.”

  “Roger, Fleet Flag out.”

  Before Chu could press Tien to commit to vectoring the southern task forces to the Bohai Haixia Strait, a radio transmission came into the room, the southeast force commander’s voice rushed and urgent:

  “FLAG, THIS IS SOUTHWEST, WE ARE

  UNDER TORPEDO ATTACK. THE DONGCHUAN AND THE WUZI ARE SINKING.

  REQUEST

  IMMEDIATE AIRCRAFT SUPPORT.”

  Tien replied to the task force commander, then looked at Chu.

  “We must divert the helicopter squadrons to the southwest task force. Radio the instructions.”

  “If you send our helicopters to the south, can I at least launch the VTOL jets down the Bohai Haixia?”

  “Keep the jets on deck until we have pinpointed the exact locations of the submarines. Then the jets can deliver the killing blows.”

  It was madness, Chu thought, that whatever facts presented themselves, Tien Tse-Min would see them through the filter of his preordained conclusions about the submarine escape through the south passage. Chu realized there was nothing more he could do but wait for the subs to reach the Shaoguan after the weapons in the south were proved to be a diversion. Then it would be up to the jets, helicopters and ASW weapons of the Shaoguan to neutralize them, even if he had to chase them into the Korea Bay.

  P.L.A navy destroyer jinan

  At 1907 the first torpedo smashed into Jinan’s hull at the forward funnel, a geyser of water exploding two hundred meters into the sky, blowing a hole in the ship so big that it looked like a bite had been taken out of the ship’s port side with jaws a halfship length wide. The engines stopped, the gas turbines dying from the destroyed fuel delivery and computer control systems.

  At 1908 a Javelin cruise missile slammed into the superstructure under the starboard bridge wing, entered the interior of the ship and detonated. The resulting explosion and fire set off one of the SS-N-14 canisters on the starboard side, which swallowed the remainder of the superstructure in a fireball that grew into a billowing mushroom cloud, turning from orange to black over the hull of the ship, rising up into the wet clouds.

  Chen and Yang were both smashed into the starboard bulkhead of the bridge when the first torpedo exploded. The Javelin explosion blew a hole in the floor of the bridge, the glass windows still remaining

  after the torpedo hit. Yang and Chen were alive, even after the cruise missile hit, but the explosion of the Silex battery vaporized the bridge wing where they had collapsed. Their bodies would never be found.

  After the SS-N-14 explosion there was nothing left of them bigger than what could be poured into a thimble.

  At 1911 the second Mark 50 torpedo swam under the keel of the crippled Jinan, the hull proximity sensor firing the detonator train, the ton of high explosive blowing the water under the keel into a sphere of expanding gases. With the water suddenly gone beneath the keel, the ship’s weight supported only by the bow and stern, the ship collapsed, breaking like a bridge carrying too great a load. The hull snapped, the bow section rolling starboard and sinking immediately, the stern half rolling to port and vanishing by the screw, the grotesque twisted and burned metal of the ripped hull sticking straight up into the rainy air, then slowly settling.

  At 1913 the only sign that a mighty Udaloy destroyer had been there was the oily slick from her fuel tanks and the foam and debris from her sinking.

  At 1914 the USS Tampa transited east, passing within four hundred yards of the corpse of the Jinan. At 1917 Seawolf followed. By 1920 Beijing time the thirteen ships of the northern task force were destroyed and on the bottom of Bohai Bay.

  Sixteen kilometers to the east, the aircraft carrier Shaoguan turned to the north, across the line of sight to the fiery explosions of what had been the northern task force, its sensors straining to detect the submarines that had caused the destruction. In the strategy room, the fleet commander stared at the radar screen, which was now empty except for the ships in the Miaodao Channel.

  CHAPTER 29

  MONDAY, 13 MAY

  1130 GREENWICH MEAN TIME

  Go had bay, bohai haixia strait USS seawolf 1930 beijing time

  “What’s your range to the carrier?” Pacino asked Lieutenant Jeff Joseph on Pos Two.

  “Sir, showing seventeen thousand yards, but the solution is sloppy.”

  “Close enough. Weps, spin up the Ow-sow in tube one.”

  Feyley acknowledged. Keebes looked up at Pacino.

  “Captain, once we launch that thing, we’d better have some air cover or that’s the end,” Keebes said, and turned back to the firecontrol computer.

  “We won’t launch until the last moment,” Pacino told him.

  Morris looked over at Pacino from the chart table.

  “This had better work, Pacino.”

  Pacino just held his gaze. No way he could promise it would.

  P.L.A navy aircraft carrier shaoguan 1938 beijing time

  Fleet Commander Chu Hsueh-Fan ignored Leader Tien Tse-Min as he looked at the radar repeater’s hooded screen while holding the handset of the radio-telephone to his ear. Other than the contours of the land to the north and south, the screen was empty in

  the Bohai Haixia Channel. The northern task force no longer existed
. Chu left the radar hood and stared out the port bulkhead windows at the channel to the west, the flames slowly dying out on the horizon as the last of the ships of the northern task force sank. When he put his binoculars down, the look on his face was murderous rage.

  “The northern fleet is gone. Sunk by torpedoes and cruise missiles from the submarines in the Bohai Haixia. While you sent our forces south and refused air cover to the north, we lost every ship and every man, men who trusted me and our Navy.”

  “I disagree. Those torpedoes and missiles could have been launched from the mouth of the Bohai Haixia before the submarines went into the south passage.

  If not for the blunders of your southwest task force we would have caught the subs by now—” Chu grabbed Tien’s tunic above the pocket, the button on the pocket flap falling to the deck.

  “You damn fool, I’ve had enough. I relieve you of tactical command.

  Maybe the Chairman will let me live if I can recapture or kill at least one submarine today. But we are both sure to die with you in command.”

  Tien, not so much a fool as to challenge Chu now, said nothing. If they survived, he would take credit.

  And Chu, it seemed, had been right … Chu found the microphone to the bridge and turned his back to Tien.

  “Bridge, Strategy, move the ship to a position two kilometers west of the line marking international waters, max speed. Alert the Yak squadron to man their planes. As soon as we reach our new position launch the Yaks and sweep to the west for submarines.”

  “FLEET COMMANDER, THE SHIP IS SPEEDING

  UP TO FORTY-FIVE CLICKS, HEADING

  NINETY-FIVE DEGREES. YAK SQUADRONS

  ARE MANNING planes.”

  “Very well. Alert the Ship Commander to begin an active sonar search

  with all hull arrays, short range first, then medium as we come around back to the west.”

  The ship’s deck began to vibrate, then to tilt as the bridge put the rudder over and the ship went into a tight turn to the east. Chu steadied himself on a sideboard while he reached for the tactical net.

  “All helicopter aircraft, this is fleet flag. Turn immediately and proceed at maximum speed to the western mouth of the Bohai Haixia and begin an active sonar sweep of the channel to the east. Use leapfrog tactics.

  Weapons release is authorized upon any submerged contacts.”

  Chen then ordered the southwest task force flag to proceed north to the western mouth of the Haixia and sweep to the east following the helicopter forces. He next directed the southeast task force flag to detach two of his fastest and closest destroyer or frigate assets and vector them to the east mouth of the Haixia at absolute maximum velocity. The ships were to standby with the Shaoguan and form a search-and-destroy task force.

  The reply came: “FLEET FLAG, SOUTHEAST

  FLAG, DETACHING UDALOY-CLASS DESTROYER ZUNYI AND LUDA-CLASS DESTROYER

  KAIFING, REMAINDER TASK

  FORCE EN ROUTE EAST HAIXIA AND PREPARING

  TO COMMENCE SONAR SWEEP

  FROM EAST TO WEST, SOUTHEAST FLAG,

  OUT.”

  Chu looked at Tien.

  “The submarines will be captured or dead within the hour. No doubt the Chairman will be very pleased with you.”

  “You have not even left a token force guarding the south.”

  “The channel is mined, PT boats are patrolling both sides of the minefield. No one would make it alive out of the south.”

  The intercom blared out the bridge officer’s voice:

  “FLEET COMMANDER, BRIDGE, THE SHIP

  IS NOW POSITIONED AS YOU ORDERED, TWO

  KILOMETERS FROM INTERNATIONAL WATERS,

  TURNING NOW TO THE WEST. YAK

  SQUADRONS WILL BE LAUNCHING AIRCRAFT

  IMMEDIATELY.”

  Chu walked to the port bulkhead overlooking the flood lamp-lit flight deck, hoping to see his son’s VTOL jet taking off.

  Aircraft Commander Chu HuaFeng jogged through the rain to his waiting Yak-36A, strapping on his flight helmet just before he reached the ladder to the cockpit.

  As the technician enabled his ejection seat, his weapons officer strapped himself into the small aft cockpit. The attack model of the Yak was a single seater, but the ASW version had a rear seat for the weapons officer, who spent more of his time detecting submarines than releasing weapons.

  Chu’s weapons officer, Lo Yun, was a young, aggressive officer straight out of the Quingdao Aviation School. Lo shared many of Chu’s opinions on the rebellion, on flying, on the navy as a career. He did not seem to mind that Chu’s father was the fleet commander, as so many of the other officers in the squadron did, always being careful of what they said when Chu was present. Lo was not afraid to be irreverent about their leadership, and more often than not Chu agreed with him. Chu was beginning to think of Lo as a friend, a very good friend. As he pulled the stick toward his crotch and the plane flew away from the deck, Chu suspected in the next hours a friend like Lo might well be as important as the weapons they carried.

  USS seawolf

  Pacino stood next to Keebes overlooking the firecontrol console. The Pos One display showed the geographic presentation of the channel sea. At the

  opening of the Haixia, the Chinese aircraft carrier was stationed as if guarding the exit. To the southwest and southeast, the ships of the task forces were heading north to the Bohai Haixia Strait, as if abandoning the southern passage and coming to help the carrier scour the Haixia. For a moment Pacino wondered if Seawolf or Tampa had been detected. Yet there were no aircraft overhead, so how could they have been detected?

  “Sonar, Conn,” Pacino called, “any aircraft contacts?

  Close or distant?”

  “Conn, Sonar, no, but we have two surface contacts coming out of the southeast task force bearing one five nine, bearing drift left. Both contacts approaching at high speed between thirty and thirty-two knots. The rest of the task force is only doing twenty-four or twenty-five.”

  “XO, designate the two contacts Targets Fourteen and Fifteen. Let’s get a solution on them and let me know their ETA to the channel mouth.”

  “We’ll need to maneuver to the south to get a passive leg,” Keebes replied.

  “Mr. Turner” Pacino called, “take the conn and drive the ship for a TMA solution on the incoming contacts.”

  “Aye, sir. Skipper, if we start doing target motion analysis here in the passage we’ll lag behind the Tampa. She’ll be out there by herself.”

  “Don’t worry,” Pacino said.

  “We’re going to be enough of a distraction that Tampa won’t be noticed.”

  “Conn, Sonar,” Chief Jeb’s voice announced on Pacino’s headset, “the Mark 38 decoys are shutting down. Seven so far. The others will be down in a few minutes. The two inbound warships from the southeast are classified destroyers, one Ludaclass, the other a Udaloy … Conn, all decoys have now shut down.”

  “Conn, aye,” Pacino replied, feeling Keebes’s eyes on him. Pacino concentrated on the firecontrol display and on the chart, watching as the solutions developed to the two inbound warships, noting that the

  Chinese carrier. Target Thirteen, was maneuvering toward the east, toward the “finish line” denoting the boundary between international and Chinese territorial waters.

  “Conn, Sonar, we’re getting helicopter engines.”

  “Where are they?”

  “The bearings are scattered, but it looks like most of them are concentrating in the west at bearing two eight five.”

  “What do you figure they’re doing, Captain?”

  Keebes asked.

  “Probably overflying the Javelin launch zone at the west mouth of the channel. Maybe they think we were there when we launched and they’re searching a zone around the liftoff.”

  “From liftoff point to the east down the channel,” Keebes added, “which means they’re on the way.”

  “Sonar, Captain, are the choppers converging on one bearing?”

 
“Yes, all choppers are now bearing two eight zero to two nine zero.”

  “Coming or going?”

  “Doppler’s not applicable here, sir.”

  “What do your ears tell you?”

  “Coming, sir. Definitely inbound.”

  Pacino looked at Keebes.

  “They’re sweeping eastward, squeezing us between the choppers on the west and the carrier on the east. And the only noises they’ll hear in this channel are us and the TampaV “And Tampa is a lot louder than we are.”

  “I know. Mr. Turner, can you arm and launch the Mark 80 SLAAMs without the periscope being up?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Arm all of them.”

  “What are you going to do?” Keebes cut in.

  “Score a few choppers.”

  “We’ve only got nine missiles.”

  “That’s nine choppers,” Pacino said.

  “Conn, Sonar, we are now getting jet engines out of the east. Looks like the carrier is launching the Yaks at us. Jets are inbound at high speed.”

  “Sir,” Turner reported, “ETA of the destroyers at our position is eighteen minutes. But they should be in SS-N-14 range within nine.”

  “Helicopters are getting closer. Captain,” Sonar Chief Jeb reported.

  “Bearings to the aircraft are spreading.”

  Pacino waited, ears straining, waiting for the first ping of a dipping sonar indicating the helicopters had found the Seawolf.

  “Conn, Sonar, we’re getting distant dipping sonar pings, some east, some west. The closer ones are west.”

  “So, Captain,” Jack Morris said, his arms crossed over his chest.

  “Did you think it would be this bad?”

  “You call this bad, Morris? So far no one’s launched a single weapon at us. Wait till the ordnance starts going off before you get in a sweat.”

  But what Pacino was thinking as he stared at the firecontrol display was: Where the hell was Donchez’s air support?

  korea bay surface action group 57 aircraft carrier USS ronald reagan

  The Nimitz-class carrier USS Ronald Reagan steamed through the rain and the mist and the dark, plowing through the Korea Bay’s whitecaps, her search radar rotating once every ten seconds, the American flag flapping from the highest yardarm of the tall central mast, the masthead lights illuminating the spray of the rain and the number 76 painted on the island, her air wing’s aircraft secured in the hangar decks in the bowels of the 105,000-ton ship. A ring of dim red lights in the island marked the bridge, where the officer of the deck drove the ship, the ships of Surface Action Group 57 in formation around the carrier, each in her assigned position and monitored by the bridge crew.