“Sir, the first submarine has been hit. Torpedo is still inbound.”
“Range of incoming torpedo?”
“Ten thousand meters and closing, sir.”
“Why are we headed in this direction? Turn us to the northwest, away from the threat.”
“Turning now, sir.”
The captain looked at the tactical display on the center table. A digital torpedo icon on the screen was heading for his fleet. Two of his smaller warships were maneuvering across the torpedo’s intended expected track, just like they had been trained to do. Each of those warships towed a torpedo decoy behind them. With luck, the American torpedo would veer away from the Jiaolong and follow one of the decoys. The torpedo might even hit one of those other warships. This would be unfortunate, but preferable to the Jiaolong taking a hit.
The captain looked at the position of the submarines on the tactical display, trying not to scream. “How did they get a torpedo off so quickly?”
“Sir, their maneuvers were highly irregular. It may have been a suicide mission. The first submarine just went full speed right for us and…”
The captain interrupted, “What is the status of the second submarine’s prosecution?”
The sailor looked at his monitor. “Sir, the dirigibles have triangulated its position and are about to launch their torpedo attack.” A pause. “Torpedo away from dirigible five. Torpedo has acquired target and is homing.”
An update from the combat information officer. “Sir, the enemy torpedo is following our decoy.”
Finally, a bit of good news. The captain let out a breath.
Captain Davidson gave the order to fire and his control room came alive with energy and movement. Little noise was heard as multiple torpedoes launched from their submarine in rapid succession. A deadly-quiet attack.
The Delaware’s torpedoes raced to their targets with ferocious speed. Two of the MK-48 ADCAP torpedoes were assigned to the Jiaolong, with the others targeting the surrounding warships.
“Sir, the second American submarine has been hit. Awaiting battle damage assessment.”
“Very well,” the captain replied.
“Sir, transients! Bearing three-three-zero, range less than three thousand meters!”
The ship lurched to starboard, the deck tilting underneath their feet. The officer of the deck was taking evasive maneuvers, per his standing orders.
“That can’t be.” The Chinese captain’s mouth dropped as he ran over to the display. “How is that possible? There were two submarines here and here… we destroyed one and just hit the other. Even if one survived, they were kilometers away from…”
“Sir… there must have been a third.”
Captain Davidson and the crew were deep in the problem now, carefully tracking the maneuvers of each surface target with mental math and computer programs. The Chinese warships carved through the water hundreds of feet above them while a single enemy submarine remained to the south.
“The Chinese destroyers are going active, sir.”
Multi-frequency pings began echoing off their hull. Captain Davidson noticed some nervous faces. But this was a desperate act. Their active search was much too far from the American submarine to be useful. Still, prudence dictated action.
Captain Davidson ordered the USS Delaware to make a sharp turn and depth change just after they launched a second set of torpedoes. The evasive maneuvers would make it harder for any of the PLA destroyers to track them, if they even had a sniff. But that was unlikely. The Virginia-class submarine, now running at near full speed, was quieter than a Los Angeles-class running at a mere five knots.
The USS Delaware had launched its attack on the recently detected Chinese submarine before the Jiaolong-class battleship was even hit. The stealth and ruthless efficiency by which the American submarine crew carried out their attack gave the Chinese Han-class submarine little chance.
The Han-class submarine detected the sound of an incoming torpedo and attempted to evade, but the MK-48 ADCAP detonated under its hull within moments of discovery. The underwater explosion created an air bubble the size of a school bus that formed just under the submarine’s center. The submarine’s buoyant ends fought an instantaneous losing battle with gravity as its hull snapped amidships.
As this happened, the Delaware’s initial two MK-48 torpedoes accelerated to over fifty knots, heading for the Jiaolong-class ship. Even with the PLA Navy’s last-minute evasive maneuver, the total time of closure was less than one minute between launch and target impact.
The first torpedo hit the Jiaolong dead center. Its six-hundred-pound warhead exploded on contact, just under the waterline. A geyser of gray shot upward from the ship, whose massive futuristic radar towers collapsed, their foundations shredded. Secondary explosions followed.
The second torpedo hit near the stern, creating giant balls of yellow flame and the thick black smoke of burning fuel.
Crews from nearby Chinese destroyers watched in horror as the ship they were tasked with protecting sank before their eyes. At first, the Chinese escorts continued their desperate search for the American submarine now hunting them. But after American torpedoes hit two more destroyers, the group commander ordered them to turn south, away from the threat.
The crew of the USS Delaware had anticipated this.
They had moved two wire-guided torpedoes into position ahead of time. When the Chinese destroyers were properly herded, the American torpedoes spooled up and began homing.
Two more hits.
On board the Delaware, the crew was teeming with excitement and relief. The attack couldn’t have gone better. The Chinese fleet was on the run, and its deadly air defense radar was out of commission.
The air attack could commence.
The Chinese fleet was massive, and the Delaware had been assigned only to the northernmost group. American submarines and Orca drones executed similar attacks hundreds of miles to the south, on the PLA Navy armada steaming in the vicinity of the Galapagos Islands. Here were the jewels of the fleet: four nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and four more Jiaolong-class ships. Each high-value unit had dozens of escorts and supply vessels, all coming to support the Chinese ground forces as they pushed north through Panama.
The Chinese had ramped up aircraft carrier production after the war began, outfitting them with the newest-generation fighter-attack aircraft. Now, as the Americans began jamming radars, these Chinese fighters were scrambled, along with PLA air force jets based in Venezuela, Peru, and Ecuador.
From the front seat of his F/A-18 Superhornet, Lieutenant Suggs heard his WSO say, “We have the execute order. Weapons armed and ready. Operation GHOSTRIDER is on like Donkey Kong.”
“Roger.” Suggs was focused on keeping in formation as his section of F-18s dove through thin layers of clouds toward the ocean. Behind them, the sky was filled with more Navy jets diving down from altitude. The aircraft would remain in formation, flying low to the water to avoid radar detection. Soon they would split up and begin attacking from multiple directions.
GHOSTRIDER was the aviation portion of the attack. If they were being given the go-ahead, that meant the US Navy submarine force had just taken out the three remaining Chinese Jiaolong-class ships. The incoming air attack force would still have to deal with the latest generation surface-to-air missiles launched from Chinese destroyers.