“You’re right, Dan, and so is the captain, but we’ve painted ourselves into a corner where that can’t be done.”
“How’d we do that?”
“Look at our hull designs. We bought higher speed and lower radiated noise levels at the cost of greater volume. In thirty years we doubled the size of our submarine.”
“I don’t see the point.”
Brent assumed his lecturing voice. “Obvious. Submarine launchers haven’t changed in more than seventy years. While hull designers solved problems with greater size, the weapons crowd had to make do with the nominal twenty-one by two hundred forty-six inch launchers. It’s grown only three inches in diameter and added a mere twelve inches in length from one we started out with eighty-seven years ago. Great for anti-surface ship weapons where radiated noise doesn’t matter but definitely a factor when the target’s another submarine. After we assumed the ASW mission, the launcher size got a lot of lip service but no action.”
“Great history lesson, Brent, but isn’t this discussion about Sealance?”
“Just a little background on what created the situation.”
Dan enjoyed his friend’s theories but he always thought it took Brent so damn long to make his point. “You got some ideas or you wouldn’t corner me on the subject.”
“The OP-02 hypothesis is wrong. We do have a long-range track capability.”
“You can’t revoke the laws of physics, Brent. The quieter they get, the closer they have to be for us to hear them.”
Brent exclaimed, “Right! But we’re quieter. Suppose we make contact, like we have been. First hearing transients and next enough broadband noise to positively identify and track. We’ve shown we can get around to his baffles without being detected, right?”
“Yeah but so far we’re still dealing with him at the same range. Detection range won’t change with a Sealance missile aboard.”
“No, Dan, we get a new option. We get a good range and speed when the target passes so we can compute where he is even beyond effective sonar range. We’ll also know transients are from him and can use them for bearing spots. We let the range open till he can no longer hear our launcher noise and then let him have it. An MK-50 Torpedo drops in on him and he has no idea where it came from. And look what this does. To evade, he’s gotta increase speed, gets noisy and we start tracking him again. We refine the range for a follow-on shot. If the MK-50 is dropped on the far side of him, he comes racing back toward us and we nail him with an ADCAP. Make sense?”
“Yeah, Brent, but the current submarine mindset is don’t let a target get by.”
“Right, but letting a target get by means we don’t let it get beyond effective weapon range. The Sealance extends that. We got a sales job in getting submariners to see it that way.”
Dan grinned at his friend, “As Tonto said to the Lone Ranger, ‘Why you say we, white man?’”
Zhukov ploughed into the southwest Pacific, principal mission, shut down the flow of enemy war materials. Ships of many non-belligerent nations also used the sea-lanes; hence, this made problems. Would-be world conquerors shared a common problem throughout history. Success depended solely upon how well peoples of the world accepted the emergent regime. Now, with a favorable outcome approaching greater reality, the Soviets sought to mollify non-belligerents while concurrently snuffing out the ally’s ability to continue the war. Unrestricted submarine warfare against all merchant shipping in the Pacific would not achieve this end.
Commander Poplavich addressed the Zhukov officers, his frequent speeches always long but never meaningful. Each pair of eyes rolled as the zampolit began, “Comrades, we must make the peoples of the world see the value of being freed from suppression of capitalism’s mantle. This cannot be achieved through inadvertent destruction of non-belligerent merchant ships. We have been given direction to attack only those belonging to, or known to be carrying contraband to the allies.”
Captain Sherensky asked, “Will this prove to be difficult, Comrade Zampolit? Many allied ships fly foreign flags.”
“You are right, Comrade Captain. The capitalist system strangles ship owners to where ships must be registered out of country in order to turn a profit. Identifying flags alone will not solve our problem. We have a list of American ships and the foreign flags they fly. With the help of this directory, conveniently provided by one of the Allied Nations, we can identify those ships.”
Sherensky did not like the idea at all. It restricted operations to daylight hours, thus cutting valuable operation time in half. Their long-range missiles permit simultaneous attacks against widely dispersed targets and now this crucial advantage will be nullified for political considerations.
Zhukov’s commanding officer thought, War and politics do indeed make strange bedfellows.
The zampolit said, “Questionable ships will be stopped and boarded.”
Astonished gasps spread among the officers. Vasiliy restrained from asking the obvious question, not wanting to further damage the view of him held by Poplavich.
Another officer asked the question as though he had read Vasiliy’s mind. “But Comrade Zampolit, won’t this show the enemy exactly where we are? Under satellite surveillance, our position will be broadcast to the allies who will use this information to avoid us. This is to say nothing of sending his own submarines to the area to attack us.”
The zampolit understood nothing about tactical problems and considerations that affected Zhukov’s ability to carry out her mission. His job, enforce political direction from the party and leave Sherensky to clean up the mess. Poplavich often muddied those waters by presenting his own tactical solutions then challenging party loyalties of those who questioned them.
Poplavich rattled on, “We’ve already shown American 688s pose no real problem. As a safety measure, however, Zhukov will re-submerge after the boarding party is dispatched and then standby at a predetermined position and await a light signal to return and recover our men.”
A knock at the wardroom door interrupted the meeting. A radioman entered and handed a message to Sherensky. While the zampolit continued his lecture, the Captain read the message, his face folded into a grave expression. He pocketed the paper and refocused his attention on the meeting.
Vasiliy thought, This ridiculous scheme not only restricts us to daylight hours but also to sea conditions that permit operation of Zhukov’s flimsy life raft for the boarding party. Why are we concerned about sinking a few neutral ships? No country in the world is capable of resisting, so why not exploit it?
Half an hour later, the zampolit closed with his usual party pep talk.
The captain said, “Vasiliy, come to my stateroom, please.”
Here it comes, Vasiliy thought,the zampolit has finally done me in. The fat now apparently in the fire, he regretted not having attacked this most recent party stupidity with full vigor. What did he have to lose?
When they reached his stateroom, Sherensky said, “Please sit down, Vasiliy. I have grave news.”
Sherensky read the message, which reported the death of Ekaterina Baknov during the American raid against Vladivostok. Also in the message the flotilla commander had added his personal condolences and stated all in the Motherland mourned the passing of this great artist.
Setting his jaw tight, Vasiliy held back the tears. As Sherensky rose, the younger man stood with him.