Martin’s thoughts were interrupted by the Sonar Supervisor’s report over the Conn speaker. “Conn, Sonar. Hold a new contact on the towed array, designated Sierra three-four, ambiguous bearings two-one-zero and zero-three-zero. Analyzing.”
Pittsburgh’s towed array was a valuable asset, detecting contacts at longer ranges than the submarine’s other acoustic sensors. However, the array was an assembly of hydrophones connected in a straight line, which meant it could not determine which side the sound arrived from, resulting in two potential bearings to the contact — one on each side of the array.
Martin acknowledged Sonar’s report and rotated the periscope to a bearing of zero-three-zero, shifting to high power and activating the doubler. There were no contacts. He swung to the south. As he examined Kola Bay, he spotted a small speck on the horizon. He called to the Electronic Surveillance Measures watch. “ESM, Conn. Report all radar contacts to the south.”
“Conn, ESM. I hold no contacts to the south.”
Martin selected the Captain’s stateroom on the 27-MC control box, then with his eye still against the periscope, retrieved the microphone from its holder.
“Captain, Officer of the Deck.”
The submarine’s Commanding Officer replied. “Captain.”
“Captain, Officer of the Deck. Hold a new surface contact exiting Kola Bay with no radar signature.”
“Very well,” he replied. “I’ll be right there.”
Commander John Buglione entered the Control Room and stepped onto the Conn — a one-foot-high platform surrounding the two periscopes — and stopped behind Lieutenant Martin.
“Let me take a look.”
Martin swung the periscope to a bearing of two-one-zero, then stepped away. Buglione took his place, adjusting the periscope optics to his setting.
The contact had a boxy superstructure, which meant it was either a container ship or one of Russia’s nuclear-powered icebreakers. Since it was transiting through coastal ice, it had to be an icebreaker, and it was most likely breaking the ice for Kazan.
Unfortunately, Buglione couldn’t see behind the icebreaker; the ship was pointed almost directly at Pittsburgh and its large, boxy superstructure blocked Buglione’s view. They needed to move off the icebreaker’s track so they could see behind it. They were on a good course, however, traveling perpendicular to the icebreaker, and Buglione eventually spotted a trailing contact — a thin, black rectangle: the sail of an outbound submarine.
“Sonar, Conn,” Buglione called out. “Hold an outbound submarine behind Sierra three-four. Do you hold anything on sonar?”
“Conn, Sonar,” the Sonar Supervisor replied. “The only thing we hold is Sierra three-four. It’s masking anything behind it.”
Buglione studied the outbound submarine’s sail. He and all of Pittsburgh’s officers had the sail shape of every Russian submarine class memorized, so there was no need to pull up images on the combat control consoles. After sorting through the possibilities, he settled on the best match, which was a Yasen class submarine—Kazan was entering the Barents Sea.
As Buglione examined Kazan, plumes of water spray jetted into the air from the submarine’s bow and stern. It was submerging, venting the air in its Main Ballast Tanks.
Buglione turned to Martin. “Come down to one-five-zero feet and station the Fire Control Tracking Party.”
20
USS PITTSBURGH • K-561 KAZAN
By the time Pittsburgh settled out at 150 feet, Sonar and the Control Room were fully manned. The submarine’s Navigator, Lieutenant Bob Cibelli, had relieved Lieutenant Martin as Officer of the Deck, and Martin now occupied a combat control console on the starboard side, one of three workstations configured to determine the contact’s solution — its course, speed, and range.
Buglione announced, “This is the Captain. I have the Conn. Lieutenant Cibelli retains the Deck.” Buglione would now issue all tactical orders, while Cibelli managed the ship’s routine evolutions and monitored the navigation picture, ensuring Pittsburgh stayed clear of dangerous shoals.
Buglione stopped behind Martin. “Geo-plot,” he ordered.
Martin pulled up the geographic plot on the top display of his dual-screen console. A map of the southern Barents Sea appeared, with Pittsburgh in the center of the display and Kola Peninsula to the south. Pittsburgh was well positioned at the mouth of Kola Bay, and Sonar should pick up any Russian submarine trying to slip by on either side.
A short while later, Sonar reported a contact. “Conn, Sonar. Gained a fifty Hertz tonal on the towed array, designated Sierra three-five, ambiguous bearings two-zero-zero and one-two-zero. Analyzing.”
A discrete frequency with no broadband meant that whatever was generating the noise was designed to be quiet; the contact was most likely the Russian submarine. Sonar quickly sorted things out.
“Conn, Sonar. Sierra three-five is classified as a Russian nuclear-powered submarine, Yasen class.”
Buglione announced to the Fire Control Tracking Party, “Attention in Control. Designate Sierra three-five as Master one. Track Master one.”
There was no need to maneuver to resolve the bearing ambiguity, since the southern bearing matched the expected bearing of the submerging Russian submarine.
The Fire Control Tracking Party focused on determining Master one’s course, speed, and range, using the geographic constraints to deduce valuable information. Buglione’s Executive Officer, Lieutenant Commander Rick Schwartz, directed Martin to pull up the geographic plot again. After examining the distance to the shoals surrounding Kola Bay, Schwartz announced into his sound-powered phones, “Maximum range to Master one is six thousand yards.”
They also had a pretty good guess for the contact’s course and speed. They were within six thousand yards and weren’t detecting broadband propulsion noise, so Kazan wasn’t traveling very fast; no more than ten knots. The submarine’s course was bracketed by Rybachy Peninsula to the west and Kildin Island to the east. Given the above constraints, the two fire control technicians and Lieutenant Martin quickly converged on similar solutions.
Lieutenant Commander Schwartz examined the three consoles, then tapped one of the fire control technicians on the shoulder. “Promote to master solution.”
Buglione examined the display. Master one was on Pittsburgh’s starboard beam, on course zero-seven-zero at ten knots, five thousand yards away.
Buglione would normally fall in behind the Russian submarine, but Kazan was still traveling in shallow water, hugging the shoals around Kildin Island in an attempt to slip by any NATO submarines lurking nearby. Pittsburgh’s towed array was deployed, and if Pittsburgh fell in behind Kazan, the towed array would drag on the bottom, damaging it. Buglione couldn’t retrieve the array, since it was the only sensor detecting Kazan.
Given the requirement to stay in deeper water, Buglione decided to put Pittsburgh in the best position possible. “Helm, ahead two-thirds. Right full rudder, steady course one-zero-zero.”
Pittsburgh angled toward Kazan’s port stern quarter.