Attack of the Seawolf

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.”