“Conn, sonar, the Harpoon’s on her way, sir, and the Mk 48 from tube one is running hot, straight and ”—there was a brief pause, and then the sonar supervisor said—“normal!”
The Romeo wasn’t as quick as the Kilo. It took them two minutes to realize there was an enemy torpedo coming through the water at them, and several minutes longer to increase their speed. And by then, it was simply too late.
“The Mk 48 has acquired the Romeo, Master 25, Captain.”
“Cut the wire, shut the outer doors on both tubes, and reload tubes one and two with Mk 48s.”
It would be several minutes before the torpedo reached the Romeo, but its fate was sealed. The Romeo had nothing on board that would fool the Mk 48 once it had acquired.
The Luda, however, was a different matter. The Harpoon was very fast, covering the seventeen miles to the Chinese destroyer in less than three minutes.
The Chinese sailors launched a cloud of chaff to try and decoy the missile away from the ship. When that failed, and the Harpoon began its final descent, Jinan fired its twin 25mm guns into the air, putting up a “wall of steel” in front of the UGM-84.
Years earlier, Saddam Hussein had tried that unsuccessfully around Baghdad against U.S. Tomahawk land-attack missiles. It didn’t work any better for the Chinese sailors. The Harpoon slammed into the vessel directly underneath its antiship missile launchers, impacting downward and tearing a large hole in the hull.
“Conn, sonar, we just heard an explosion on the surface. We hit the destroyer bad, sir. I’m hearing breaking-up noises already.”
“What about the Mk 48?”
“Impact in four minutes, Captain, but it’s a lock. That Romeo’s not doing much to get out of the way.”
The combat systems officer knew his weapons well. A Romeo-class submarine could do thirteen knots at top speed — but only if it was in good condition. This one did not seem able to get above nine knots.
Mack was pleased, but he wasn’t satisfied. He ordered tubes three and four readied, and then initiated firing point procedures against the damaged destroyer. When that had been done, he ordered, “Match sonar bearings and shoot tube three, Master 26.”
“Match bearings and shoot tube three, Master 26,” acknowledged the fire-control coordinator.
Tube three was fired electrically, but sonar didn’t have the chance to report on the torpedo’s status before the Romeo was hit. The old, antiquated reserve submarine had tried to evade, tried to flee, but Cheyenne had it outgunned and outmaneuvered.
“Conn, sonar, we have the sounds of a submarine filling with water. Master 25 is sinking, sir.”
Mack acknowledged the report and asked, “What’s the status on the second Mk 48?”
“Conn, sonar, it’s running hot, straight, and normal, sir.”
The combat systems officer announced acquisition.
When the Mk 48 acquired its target Mack ordered the wire in tube three cut, tube four secured, and tube three reloaded with an Mk 48. When that had been done, he gave the command to take Cheyenne deep once more. Moments later a loud explosion marked the death of the already damaged Chinese Luda II destroyer.
Mack was satisfied. The Harpoon might have been enough to sink it. Now, however, the destroyer went down with all hands and both helicopters on board. Mack gave the order to secure from battle stations.
Ten hours later Cheyenne was approaching her launch point north of the Spratlys.
“How long until we arrive at the launch point?” Mack asked.
“We should be at our launch point within seven minutes,” the navigation officer replied. With Cheyenne currently 2.5 nautical miles south of her launch point and running at twenty knots, Mack manned “battle stations missile.”
Mack ordered Cheyenne brought to periscope depth to confirm her location by GPS and receive any new orders. This also gave them a chance to verify the targeting information they’d downloaded earlier.
With everything confirmed, Cheyenne proceeded to her launch point and prepared to launch six land-attack missiles at the Cuarteron Reef Submarine Base. Two of the Tomahawk missiles were the UGM-109D varieties, each of which carried 166 BLU-97/B combined-effects munitions. These would be able to take out soft targets and destroy electronic sensors and early-warning systems protecting the base. The remaining four were fitted with a 1,000 pound “bull-pup” warhead that was designed to take out the base headquarters and the piers where the submarines were being rearmed and refueled.
One by one, Cheyenne launched her missiles, and then slipped deeper into the sea. She would now have to wait on word from naval intelligence to determine if her mission was a success.
“Diving Officer, make your depth five hundred feet. Let’s get out of here before they know what — and who — hit them.”
Mack was pleased. His crew had performed well, Cheyenne had carried out her mission, and now they were heading toward the Sulu Sea. McKee would be there waiting for her, and Cheyenne would get a mini-refit. Mack secured battle stations once more, hoping it would be the last time this trip.
Mack didn’t know what his next orders would be, but he was sure Cheyenne was going to need all the weapons McKee could give her.
4. Dogfight
Mack walked through officer country on board the submarine tender McKee, accompanied by his combat systems and operations officers, his navigator and communicator, and his sonar officer. Cheyenne was just completing her mini-refit, and Mack and his officers were on their way to their final briefing. The refit had taken several days, and for each of those days the officers from Cheyenne had taken their meals in the vast wardroom on board McKee. This day, the final day of their refit, Mack had elected to take his breakfast with his own officers rather than in McKee’s flag mess.
Mack was pleased that the refit had gone smoothly. On the first day, his executive officer and his chief yeoman, along with the communicator and officer-in-charge (OIC) of the naval security group (NSG) detachment on board Cheyenne, had been responsible for transferring numerous boxes from Cheyenne to McKee. Those crates and boxes had contained the myriad logs, data sheets, and sonar and radio and ESM tapes that Cheyenne had amassed during the period of time from when she departed Pearl Harbor until she arrived in the Sulu Sea alongside McKee.
Among this, carefully stored in box 1, was the three hundred-page “Patrol Report of Cheyenne, Pearl Harbor to Sulu Sea,” which Mack had signed earlier. This was a running narrative of events and tactics employed, along with a written guide to the rest of the items in the boxes.
Mack always enjoyed looking back through this report. It was compiled four times a day by the off-going officer of the deck and his assistant, the junior officer of the deck. As soon as it was compiled, the ship’s yeomen typed it up on the high-speed PCs in the ship’s office. The color printer and color scanner made the patrol report an interesting novel, complete with color pictures of the tactical encounters experienced.
This report, with all the details of Cheyenne’s first adventures, would remain on board McKee for some time. Eventually, couriers from Independence would transfer the materials from McKee to the carrier, and from there they would travel by C-2 aircraft to the Yokosuka Naval Base.