Chen didn’t see it. If he were a submarine commander trying to make his way out he’d keep to the wider channel. But perhaps the fleet commander had satellite surveillance or some reason to believe that the subs would come out via Miaodao.
Chen swallowed his frustration. His life since adolescence had led up to this moment, and not only was his ship put in the secondary task force, a halfhearted contingency force, but they were doing the job of a PT boat. He walked to the port bridge wing and searched the bay to the west with his binoculars.
“BRIDGE, COMBAT CONTROL,” a speaker blared out from the overhead, its rasping volume startling Chen, who put his binoculars down and concentrated on the announcement. “WE HAVE BROADBAND SONAR CONTACT ON MULTIPLE SUBMERGED HOSTILE TARGETS TO THE WEST.”
Chen felt the rush of excitement spinning him to an accelerated speed. With one hand he grabbed the microphone of the ship’s announcing system: “GENERAL QUARTERS, CAPTAIN TO THE BRIDGE.”
With his other hand he grabbed the handset of the tactical net radio and clicked the button for transmitting, tried to make his voice slow and distinct.
“Task force flag, this is destroyer Jinan reporting initial detection of multiple submerged hostile contacts, bearing west, supplemental report to follow, over.”
“JINAN, THIS IS TASK FORCE FLAG, ACKNOWLEDGING INITIAL DETECTION, OUT,” the tactical net’s speaker crackled.
Commander Yang Pei Ping hurried into the bridge, his face set in a mask of concentration.
“I’ve been in combat control, Chen,” he said.
“They are tracking twelve contacts. A dozen submarines!”
“No. That’s impossible,” Chen said. “Is it a trick?”
“Perhaps the Americans sent a fleet of submarines to rescue their ship. From the destruction at Xingang it is beginning to make sense. Are general quarters manned?”
“Yes sir.”
“Good. Arm the SS-N-14 Silexes and the Type 53s. Prepare for a Silex launch of the entire battery to the west.”
“Yes, Commander, but the range to the targets is unknown. We can’t throw away missiles without a firecontrol range. Perhaps the Commander would consider using the active sonar to locate the mean range.”
“No,” Yang said, dismissing the younger man. “Passive sonar only. Orders of the fleet commander. He does not want to fill the channels with active echo ranging signals that might impede our longer range detection of threats. The more we transmit, the more noise in the water and the less we’ll hear.”
“Sir, I don’t mean to doubt the fleet commander, but an active sonar transmission will determine beyond a doubt if any of these hostile contacts are … decoys.”
“There are no such things as decoys, Chen. These are submarines.”
“We’d get a range to the ships much quicker going active, sir. The subs could be driving up close any moment. We need to release weapons, at least fire torpedoes to the west.”
“Chen, the tactics are being evaluated in combat control. Your function is to help me drive the ship, not comment on strategy. We’ll continue our target motion analysis by turning around when we have the first leg bearing rates. The task force will maneuver in a moment.”
Yang took up the intercom mike.
“Combat control, do you have a steady bearing rate?”
“BRIDGE, COMBAT, YES.”
“Task force flag, this is destroyer Jinan reporting first leg complete and ready for maneuver, over,” Yang reported on the tactical net, which replied immediately:
“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.
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.