“Con aye,” said Jacobs. “The Yasen class are some of their quietest subs yet. We’re probably lucky to hear her. Let’s put the ship directly between the carrier and them,” Jacobs said to the Diving Officer. “Might as well let them do all the work,” he said.
“Makes sense. He’s letting the carrier come to him. In about half an hour he will be within torpedo range for us. That will still leave him a good twenty miles from the carrier,” said the XO.
“Concur. I don’t want him to get any closer either,” said Jacobs. “Have the torpedo room ready a decoy to go along with the torpedo. I want to send it off to port and turn in. The decoy can make some noises on that bearing. If we miss, I want him to think we are over there. That gives me another good shot if I need it. This is one we have to get,” he said.
“I’ll go down and see to it,” said the XO as he left the control room and went below.
The antisubmarine LAMPS helicopter spooled up and lifted off the deck of the guided missile destroyer. In the ship’s combat information center, the ASW coordinator looked at his chart. The men were extremely frustrated that the carrier had taken three torpedoes and they had not been able to find the shooter. The chart was a maze of lines indicating where sonobuoys had been laid, so far to no result. Now the LAMPS pilot, a fairly green kid who had to learn quickly, was asking for a vector.
“Tell him to vector 117. That area hasn’t been looked at yet,” said the coordinator.
The helicopter moved to a new course of 117 degrees. After about 20 miles, he began dropping the passive sonobuoys in a long line across the sea.
“I hear a helo somewhere astern of us,” said Faris.
“Never mind him, it’s a friendly. Keep sending me bearings and ranges to the target,” said Jacobs. The minutes had passed quickly and now their target was within range.
“Target bearing 120, 18,000 yards. Course and speed unchanged,” Faris reported.
“Has the offset been programmed into the torpedo and the decoy?” Jacobs asked.
“Program is set, Captain. Ready to shoot,” said the weapons control officer.
“Fire one,” said the Captain. A few seconds later he ordered, “Fire two.”
Both the torpedo and then the decoy swam from their tubes and followed a course 90 degrees to port of the Texas’ position. They traveled for several thousand yards at low speed until the computer told them to turn towards the target. While the decoy began to circle and emit noises, the torpedo sped up to 50 knots and headed straight toward the target.
“Torpedo in the water, bearing 320 degrees!” screamed the sonar operator.
“Engine ahead flank. Turn starboard to 140! Quickly!” the Captain ordered.
The Kazan responded immediately to the order as the engineers raced to bring the propulsion plant up to full power. On the starboard side of the engine room, a valve had been giving the engineers some trouble earlier and had been left uncovered when the sub began making her way back to the carrier. As the pressures increased in the lines, the flaw, which had been causing the valve to stick, ruptured. Superheated steam at 900 psi suddenly poured into the cramped space from the crack. Men rushed to the area only to be scalded by the hot steam. Within seconds, the compartment was unlivable. The last act of the engineer was to crack the throttles wide open and hope the ship survived.
“Sir, there is a steam leak in the engine room. They are abandoning the compartment!” a young seaman nearly screamed in his report.
Captain Dobrinin jerked around to look at the young man. “How bad?”
“He said they were getting out. The place is killing the men,” he said.
“How is our speed?
“Passing twenty five knots. Still climbing, Captain,” said the petty officer on the enunciator.
“The torpedo is pinging us. He has us for sure!” came a report from sonar.
“Hard dive on the planes. Hard left rudder!” Dobrinin ordered. He began the tactic of moving the ship back and forth to try and fool the torpedo.
All the hatches were closed to engineering. Slowly the pressure built up in the compartment. The interior bulkheads began to press outward. Engine room personnel were lying on the deck receiving care from the sub’s lone corpsman. The drastic movement of the submarine heightened the fear showing on everyone’s faces.
The MK-48 ADCAP torpedo saw the target movements and compensated. It tracked steadily toward the target it could plainly see.
In a last ditch effort, Dobrinin launched a torpedo toward the incoming MK-48. In the end, it made no difference. The torpedo shot past the American weapon and sped out to sea.
Inside the now empty engine room, the pressure built to match the steam pressure. Along the interior bulkheads, steam began seeping into the next compartments.
The MK-48 exploded just five yards from the Kazan, just aft of the sail. The explosion ripped through the pressure hull penetrating the control room bulkhead. In an instant, the forward part of the sub imploded. The pressurized engine room withstood the blast for a few minutes. The Kazan, with its engines still running at flank speed, dove for the bottom under its own power.
***
The sonar operator aboard the helo heard the noises and informed the pilot. In a minute, the helo was laying a new line of sonobuoys, listening for any sounds. He immediately heard the sounds being given off by the decoy. As instructed, the pilot dashed toward the line of buoys. As he made his run, the operator picked up a twitch on his MAD gear. Designed to pick up a magnetic disturbance made by a submarine, the pilot quickly turned to make another run over the position. When he passed over and the gear went off again, he announced over the radio, “Mad man, mad man, weapon away!” The MK-46 torpedo carried by the helicopter dropped into the water before the destroyer could remind the young pilot that there were friendlies in the area.
In the midst of celebration, Faris yelled out of his compartment, “Torpedo in the water bearing 210, close by! It’s a 46!”
“Shit!” shouted Jacobs, who immediately turned the submarine away and began to dive the ship. Like the Russian, he tried maneuvering the ship to try and get the torpedo to miss. A knuckle was put in the water with a noisemaker just inside. The MK-46 began its search and quickly heard the submarine speeding away. It turned toward its target. Slower than a MK-48, the small weapon still closed the gap on its prey. Using every skill he had acquired in his twenty years of service, Jacobs made another hard turn and began heading the ship toward the surface. For a second, the torpedo lost contact, but upon turning around saw the submarine again. This time, it came in from dead astern.
The explosion was heard on the line of sonobuoys and a rush of water could be seen bubbling to the surface. After a few minutes, no sounds could be heard in the water. The young pilot was ordered back to the ship. When they heard why, the mood in the helo became somber indeed.
Chapter 10
Corrections
“We cannot afford to do as we have this first day. Our efforts appear uncoordinated and we are wasting both our time and resources simply because some of us either cannot or will not conform to our plans,” said Hammond to the assembled generals. “For example, our drones were able to open large holes in the enemy front lines, but some units were as much as two hours late moving in to take advantage of this. As a result, the Russians were able to reinforce their units and successfully counter our efforts. In two cases, the delay caused our air assets to attack our own units. This is unacceptable,” he said forcefully. “We have neither the personnel nor the material to waste them against our enemy. They have much more to expend than we do. That being said, the German and Polish forces have been able to close in behind the Russian lines. Our Predator drones are playing havoc all along the front and we have been able to consolidate our gains. We need to use these things to our advantage as long as we can.” He turned to the intelligence officer. “I understand they are sending in more units?”