Attack of the Seawolf

“TASK FORCE NORTH, THIS IS TASK FORCE FLAG, STANDBY FOR IMMEDIATE EXECUTE, BREAK, TURN STARBOARD ONE EIGHT ZERO RELATIVE, BREAK … STANDBY … EXECUTE:’

“Right full rudder, both engines ahead full speed,” Yang ordered.

The ship responded, the deck vibrating and tilting as the rudder and gas-turbine engines brought her one hundred and eighty degrees around to the south. At the same time every ship in the task force turned a half-circle, reversing course, the ships now driving their racetrack clockwise instead of counterclockwise, the better to get a parallax range to the incoming submarines.

Two minutes later it was apparent that the contacts were extremely close. Much too close. Inside the minimum range of the Silex missiles, Chen thought bitterly, resenting the mindless rigidity of his senior officers. If they had gone active, the Silex missiles would have blown up the submarines three minutes ago.

The task force had lost their opportunity. It was now, he felt, too late to shoot. Once the submarines came between the surface ships and the aircraft carrier they would have to use the fleet’s helicopters to kill the subs — the firing of torpedoes going east toward the aircraft carrier and the fleet commander had been prohibited.

P.L.A NAVY AIRCRAFT CARRIER SHAOGUAN

Fleet Commander Chu Hsueh-Fan put the handset of the tactical net back in its cradle and looked at Tien Tse-Min, who was leaning over the chart table and scratching his chin.

“Leader Tien, we have detected twelve submerged contacts in the Bohai Haixia Strait. They are heading east and approaching the north task force. The task force will be releasing weapons in the next few moments.”

Chu bit back a smile now that the notion that the submarines would depart via the south passage was obviously disproved. There would be no more interference from Tien — they could get on with the business of destroying the submarines.

“No. Your north task force shall not release weapons.

The submarines will be coming through the south channel at any moment.”

Chu could not believe what he was hearing.

Tien grabbed the tactical net handset and called the southwest task force commander.

“Southwest task force flag, this is Tien. Is there any sign of a detection, over?”

“LEADER TIEN, THIS IS SOUTHWEST TASK FORCE FLAG, STANDBY, OVER.”

“Leader Tien, I do not understand.”

“Chu, if you were a commander of a sub you would understand. The Americans are launching decoys at us to confuse us. They will wait until all our weapons are depleted and then they will sail through the bay making fools of us.”

“Sir, decoys or not, no one has decoys that can make a sound like a submarine. There are units that can make noise, even generate a screen of bubbles to fool torpedoes, but these contacts are a flotilla of submarines. Can you expect me to let these contacts go without shooting them?”

“Commander Chu,” Tien said, “any noise, any weapons, any active sonar, any activity of our forces in the northern passage will make the Americans believe that they have confused us. I am telling you, they are coming out through the Miaodao Strait.”

“LEADER TIEN, THIS IS SOUTHWEST TASK FORCE FLAG, OVER.”

“Go ahead. Flag.”

“WE HAVE DETECTED TWO SUBMERGED CONTACTS CLOSING THE ENTRANCE TO THE MIAODAO CHANNEL AT APPROXIMATELY TWENTY-FIVE CLICKS. CONFIDENCE IS HIGH THAT THESE ARE THE AMERICANS. REQUEST IMMEDIATE WEAPONS RELEASE, OVER.”

Tien smiled.

“I told you the Bohai Haixia detections were a feint. A smokescreen to draw our attention to the north.”

“Sir, if you won’t allow a weapon release for the north task force, we at least need to verify these contacts in the Bohai Haixia with our helicopters, the units with magnetic anomaly detection.”

“Mag detection won’t work in a shallow channel,” Tien said.

Chu raged beneath his forced calm. Leader Tien Tse-Min knew just enough about naval matters to be dangerous, but certainly not enough to sink a PT boat, much less a flotilla of motivated and lethal American submarines. The first crack formed in Chu’s professional front.

“Leader Tien, listen with your ears and launch the helicopters.”

For a moment Tien just stared at Chu. After a moment he raised his eyebrows and smiled indulgently.

“Very well. Fleet Commander. I suppose it would not hurt to do some overflights.”

Chu gave an order into the phone. Down the flight deck below, the jet turbines of twelve Harbin Z-9A helicopters began to spool up, reaching full power a few moments later, the main rotors of the big machines beginning to spin, beating the rainy air of the storm-darkened dusk.

P.L.A NAVY DESTROYER JINAN

At 1854, the first of the contacts drove under the task force, the submarines inside minimum weapons range.

The other submarines likewise were too close to shoot, and one by one they transited under the channel where the task force sailed. Jinan, like the other vessels, allowed the ships to go, knowing that once the subs were outside one kilometer they could shoot SSN-14 Silex missiles at the ships, as long as the Shaoguan gave permission.