Through the periscope, Mack could see the Discovery Great Reef oil rig. At a glance, he could tell that it had been destroyed during the Chinese occupation of the island. But he needed to give it more than just a glance. He was supposed to get some accurate photographs of the rig for intelligence back in Washington. In addition, he needed to ensure that the rig was not being used as a Chinese submarine depot that could rearm or refuel Chinese SSKs.
He made another quick circle as he “danced” the periscope around the surface. He could find no evidence that the rig was being used for anything — or that it was even in the process of being repaired — but still he was cautious. This was a very dangerous place for Cheyenne to be running at periscope depth.
Six nautical miles away, or about 12,000 yards from Cheyenne’s current position, the Chinese Kilo submarine was operating in its silent mode — running on its batteries. With no noise coming from their own ship, the Chinese sonar operators listened carefully to their low frequency sonar, searching the waters for the sound of any American vessels.
They heard nothing.
The Chinese had been loitering here, running silently on their batteries, for seventeen hours, keeping their depth shallow at 45 feet and their ears open. The captain was waiting for the Americans to walk into his trap.
After seventeen hours, however, the captain of the Kilo grew impatient. He’d had enough of this waiting. Slowly the Kilo pulled out of its hiding spot and began to pick up speed. Its captain had decided to make a run at six knots, slowly and quietly circling Discovery Great Reef, searching for any American naval vessels.
As soon as the Kilo moved, it lost its protection against American sonars, and Cheyenne heard it.
“Conn, sonar, we just reacquired Master 48. It’s a Kilo, single six-bladed screw. It just increased speed to six knots and it’s heading north.”
A short time later a BSY-1 operator reported the Kilo’s range, and Mack knew Cheyenne was in trouble. The Chinese submarine was only 11,000 yards away, which meant that Mack had unknowingly brought Cheyenne well within weapons range of the Chinese Kilo and her TEST-71 homing torpedoes.
“Make tubes one and two ready,” Mack ordered. “But do not open the outer doors!” He emphasized that. They were too close, and he didn’t want to give the Kilo any chance of detecting their location.
“Make tubes one and two ready but do not open the outer doors, aye, sir.”
Mack had a problem. He had the drop on the Kilo, but he didn’t have much maneuvering room. If the Kilo got off a return shot, Cheyenne could be in trouble.
And that was the least of his worries. His bigger problem was his lack of intel. Were there other Chinese submarines out there? Naval intelligence said no — but they’d missed one already. Who was to say they hadn’t missed more?
This was a problem because he would give away his position as soon as he fired on the Kilo — and even if that submarine didn’t fire back, there could be others hiding in the shallow water waiting to pounce.
Captain Mackey ordered Cheyenne rigged for ultraquiet. He wanted every effort made to ensure that nothing alerted the Kilo to their location. Word was quickly passed to all compartments over the sound powered phones. Non-vital equipment was quickly secured. The crew whispered when they spoke, wondering what would be next.
On board the Chinese submarine, the captain was growing frustrated. He was assigned to keep watch for American submarines, but he knew that he would never hear them unless they were close enough to fire their Mk 48s. Even under ideal circumstances his passive sonar was never up to par with the American BSY-1 system, but in these shallow waters his Russian passive sonar performance was even worse.
Frustrated, he ordered his sonar room to use their active sonar and ping the area, hoping to even out the playing field and get a better fix on his surroundings. He had no idea that the USS Cheyenne was attempting to close in on his position.
“Conn, sonar, the Kilo just went active on its fire-control sonar. He painted the entire area for us.”
Mack knew immediately that this was good news as well as bad. It was bad because the Kilo now knew where Cheyenne was and had also received a firing solution. The good news, however, was that the active ping had given the same data to Cheyenne. Even more important, that one ping had lit up the murky waters of Discovery Great Reef like a flashlight. Thanks to that ping, Mack now knew that the Chinese Kilo was all alone.
Mack had the upper hand, but he wouldn’t have it for long. He had to act fast — and act first.
He initiated the firing point procedures to attack the Kilo, Master 48. “Open the outer doors on tubes one and two,” ordered Mack.
“Open the outer doors on tubes one and two, aye, sir.”
“Match sonar bearings and shoot tubes one and two.”
“Match sonar bearings and shoot tubes one and two, aye, sir.”
Cheyenne’s torpedo tube muzzle doors opened and two Mk 48 ADCAPs knifed through the murky water toward the enemy submarine.
On board the lone Chinese Kilo, the captain was furious with himself. He had been tasked with waiting quietly for any American target, but he had lost his patience, and it had cost him.
He would have liked to blame it on timing and bad luck — that American submarine showing up just when he decided to take a stroll around the reef was unbelievably bad luck — but he knew he couldn’t shrug it off that easily. After all, he had no idea how long the Americans had been out there. No, the simple truth was he’d made a mistake. Now he could only hope that the American captain would make one, too.
That hope died almost immediately. He had barely formed the thought when his sonar room alerted him to their discovery. The American captain had not made a mistake. He’d beaten the Chinese captain to the punch, launching not one but two deadly ADCAP torpedoes before the Kilo had even gotten their tubes ready.
Within minutes the two Mk 48s had acquired the Kilo and their wires were cut. The Mk 48s were on their own as they entered the terminal phase of their “flight.”
The Chinese submarine launched a series of noisemakers, one after another, and began twisting through the shallow water in an effort to decoy the two torpedoes. It was no use, though. The Kilo had no more room to maneuver than Cheyenne did, and no time to run.
The Mk 48s were now using their powerful active seekers and they simply ignored the noisemakers. They stayed with the Kilo as it tried to evade.
Within minutes, two nearly simultaneous explosions announced to Cheyenne’s crew that their weapons had found their mark. The two Mk 48s had impacted, one next to the other, into the port side of the Kilo.
The explosion caused the Chinese boat to split in half after both sides had filled with water. Cheyenne had destroyed another boat — and not just any submarine. This was another Kilo, the pride of the Chinese navy.
“Conn, sonar, I don’t hear anything else in the area,” the sonar supervisor reported to the captain after the situation was under control.
“It looks like this area has been ‘deloused,’ the captain said. ”I don’t think that there are any other vessels operating in the area, but just to make sure let’s make a quick check around and then head to our second search area.”