On his orders, Cheyenne slowed and, after proceeding above the layer, cleared her baffles to port. There was no sign of the Alfas, only reverberations from the explosions.
The data did show, however, that there had been three explosions, not two. The one they’d picked up in their baffles had actually been two separate explosions.
Mack didn’t have many different ways to read this situation. The Alfas could either have surfaced or have gone to the bottom — and he didn’t think they’d gone down. There had been eight separate torpedoes in the area, he knew, four from Cheyenne and two each from the Alfas. With only three explosions, it was doubtful that both Chinese submarines had been killed.
But there just wasn’t any way to tell from the available data. Not yet, anyway. The sonar tapes would have to be analyzed, a process that would take some time, and then maybe they’d have a better idea.
Cheyenne continued on course toward the second patrol area, at seven hundred feet to keep beneath the layer, while battle stations and the rig for depth charge were secured. The usual all-officer meeting was delayed for at least thirty minutes while the captain and executive officer talked in his stateroom and the melee was reconstructed by the battle stations fire-control party.
It was clear to both the captain and the executive officer that the Chinese commander-in-chief had ordered drastic measures. Both Alfas had continued on course right at Cheyenne’s datum without trying to turn away, even with Mk 48s coming their way.
Mack had always hated the Soviet Crazy Ivan maneuvers, but this was even worse. It was more like the Japanese kamikaze, the “Divine Wind” World War II pilots.
When the officers finally got together in the wardroom, the sonar supervisor and his chief petty officer were there with their tape analysis. They had been able to determine that two of the explosions were Mk 48 ADCAP PBXN-103, one in the baffles and the one bearing 175. The third explosion, originally in the baffles, was from a 53cm torpedo warhead. They were able to determine the difference in kilogram yield based on the duration and decibels of the reverberations.
Their reconstruction of the target courses and torpedo courses proved almost conclusively that the two Alfas had suffered one hit apiece. As for the remaining Chinese torpedoes, in their professional opinion either the 53cm torpedo explosion had destroyed them or they had run themselves to exhaustion while circling Cheyenne’s countermeasures. The torpedoes, once decoyed, would have waited for the countermeasures to exhibit some doppler — something they had been programmed not to do.
In keeping with his policies, Captain Mackey used the 1MC to inform the entire crew of the reconstructed results of their battle. This time, he told them, the Chinese commander-in-chief’s orders had helped Cheyenne. The Alfas had been more intent on the kill than on their own survival. But next time… well, he didn’t want there to be a next time.
From now on, he told them, Cheyenne would launch her torpedoes at longer ranges, shooting on towed-array bearing solutions whenever possible. In fact, he added, he was contemplating shooting with the section fire-control tracking parties if need be. Mack had no desire to be rammed by the crazy Chinese COs on a vendetta and who apparently had no respect for their own men’s lives. With what he knew of the Chinese, he could only assume that they figured posthumous glory was better than returning to a firing squad.
The crew was silent after the captain finished talking on the 1MC. Each and every man on board Cheyenne realized that this could be a long war unless they put more rounds into the Chinese, both above and beneath the surface of the sea, and they couldn’t help wondering when Columbia and Bremerton would be sent to help. Being kept informed was the name of the game on board Cheyenne, and the executive officer had passed on the sister ship information at quarters prior to getting under way.
Cheyenne’s second patrol area was located two hundred nautical miles south-southeast of Macclesfield Bank, a spot that shoaled rapidly from over two thousand fathoms to depths of less than forty feet. The transit there was fast and silent and uneventful.
On arrival near the southwest corner of the area, the captain ordered the OOD to launch an SSXBT. This submarine bathythermograph device was designed to rise to the surface and then drop to the bottom, collecting data on temperature versus depth information through the water column. The SSXBT would send this data back over a thin wire, similar to the torpedo guidance wire, to an onboard recorder in the control room. The information from the SSXBT would be input to the BSY-1 for use by the sonar and fire-control systems. It also would provide layer depth information so that Cheyenne could effectively hide beneath the layer, or even a second, deeper layer.
Mack had not had time upon arrival in the first patrol area to obtain the SSXBT information. Cheyenne had encountered the two Alfas too quickly. But that wouldn’t be the case this time. He was planning the long-range shots now, and the information collected by the SSXBT would be vital to their accuracy. Cheyenne would get more SSXBT information at other locations, just in case horizontal gradients were present that could significantly affect the fire-control solution.
Three of the four planned SSXBT “shots” had been completed when the OOD informed the captain that sonar had gained weak, but slowly closing, Alfa-like tonal contacts to the north, possibly three separate contacts.
Mack acknowledged the information, but he didn’t like what it meant. These contacts couldn’t have been the Alfas from the south, so Russia really was dumping nuclear attack submarines on China.
Minutes later, while he was talking with the executive officer outside the exec’s stateroom, the OOD told Mack over the exec’s sound-powered phone that he had incoming flash VLF traffic over the floating wire. Mack and the executive officer proceeded to the radio room forward of the control room.
Bad timing, Mack thought as he read the message. As if the inbound Alfas weren’t enough, Cheyenne had just received orders to prepare to launch their Tomahawks. To do that, they would have to proceed to periscope depth to copy the IPAC Tomahawk targeting data over SSIXS.
Mack didn’t like it. Ideally, they would do that quickly, get to periscope depth, copy lengthy SSIXS traffic, and get back down before they lost the long-range shot advantage against the Alfas. Unfortunately, this situation was far from ideal. Launch directives were also coming in over the floating wire, and those launch directives wouldn’t allow him that luxury. Cheyenne was to remain at periscope depth and launch all twelve missiles as soon as the download was complete and pre-Palawan Island waypoints had been inserted into the CCS Mk 2 console.
Mack didn’t like it, but his orders didn’t give him any choice. Wasting no time, he ordered the OOD to take Cheyenne up to periscope depth.
As soon as Cheyenne started copying the targeting data, the captain ordered, “Man battle stations, missile,” then explained the situation to the crew. Cheyenne was to launch the TLAM-Cs to take out aircraft on the ground before they moved from their current revetments. She was also to launch the TLAM-Ds to crater the new runways so additional fighter aircraft, the SU-27 Flankers, could not be so quickly repositioned from the Paracels.