The Trafalgar enters the straits from the Atlantic side. The British may try to use their other assets, the Nimrods in particular, to help drive the Kilo into the hunting Trafalgar. The Nimrods may be tasked to drop active sonobuoys. These, combined with active sonars from ASW helicopters, might just make the Kilo captain move deeper into the straits, right into the waiting T-boat. The aircraft, however, will not be allowed to drop any ASW ordnance on it. With many submarines of various nations traveling through the straits, and the closeness of one of their own nuclear boats, the possibilities for a "blue-on-blue" or friendly fire confrontation are simply too high. The Trafalgar is like a surgeon's scalpel compared to the bludgeons of the aircraft.
Once the British think the T-boat is within range of a bottom bounce detection, the Trafalgar would probably use her 2020 active sonar to scan for the Kilo. This will be extremely disconcerting for the Kilo captain, with the buoys and active sonars of the aircraft and helos driving him from the Mediterranean side, and the blasting from the active sonar of the Trafalgar. He may choose to find a shallow spot and bottom his boat in an attempt to wait the British forces out. This will not work. With the on-station loiter time granted by its nuclear power plant, the Kilo will be out of battery power and supplies to run her environmental control systems long before the beer runs out in the wardrooms of the T-boat.
Inevitably the Kilo will have to make a run for it, and that's the time for the kill. The advantage of active sonar is that range and bearing to the target are known with a fair degree of accuracy. An added bonus with this powerful generation of active sonars is that the acoustic intercept receiver on the Kilo will be so swamped with noise (like a stereo system with the volume too high-you cannot make out any discrete sound), they will not hear anything but the sound of the British 2020 sonar blasting away. Once the T-boat has closed to the desired range (probably over 10,000 yards), it is time to prosecute the Kilo. The Trafalgar may launch a pair of Spearfish torpedoes in high-speed mode, active pinging, with the wires acting as data links to the weapons.
The Kilo is likely to hear nothing of this. Only when the seeker heads of the Spearfish have acquired the Kilo will the active sonar of the T-boat be secured, and then the crew of the Kilo will hear over their acoustic intercept receiver the pinging of two Spearfish torpedoes already commencing their endgames. Unlike the previous scenarios, in which the nuclear boats could sometimes run from torpedoes and possibly outmaneuver them, the Kilo just does not have that option. Its relatively slow speed makes it something of a sitting duck, and the end will come quickly. This time there will be no doubt, for when the first torpedo hits, it will kill the little diesel boat and all its crew. In all likelihood, all that will be left is scrap metal and fish food.
And that's the way to deal with modern Barbary Pirates.
Tactical Example — Battle Group Escort
The big gun of the fleet is still the aircraft carrier battle group (CVBG), which for that very reason is itself a target. The carrier remains the best platform for projecting power from sea to land, and the best for establishing presence, a term that means just what it says. A carrier and her battle group can appear on the horizon and just be there. As a police car can calm a neighborhood merely by cruising down the street, so can a powerful air/surface force let people on land know that someone cares what is happening.
The most likely threat to a carrier is a submarine armed with antiship cruise missiles (SSMs). Though unlikely to cause fatal damage to a supercarrier, a few well-placed SSMs can force her to leave the scene of action for repairs. The range of modern cruise missiles (up to 300 miles) makes the task of protecting the carrier far more complex than it was only two decades ago. Another problem is the decreasing number of ASW escorts available to the commanders of CVBGs. In just the last couple of years the U.S. Navy has retired dozens of cruisers, destroyers, and frigates. Since the submarine remains the primary threat, another submarine must be one of the protectors.
The most formidable dedicated cruise-missile submarine (SSGN) is the Russian Oscar class (nicknamed "Mongo" by some NATO submariners because of its awesome size). The Oscar-class SSGN is, in some ways, the Russians' first modern submarine. It is large and relatively quiet (much like a Sierra-class SSN) and is equipped to stream a large towed-array sonar. This boat, designed specifically to be a carrier hunter, is equipped with twenty-four SS-N-19 Shipwreck SSMs as well as a full array of torpedoes. It is the single most powerful attack submarine in the world, and thus must be hunted by the best boats we have, the 688Is.
Currently each CVBG usually has a pair of SSNs assigned to provide long-range ASW protection. Unlike the surface escorts, which have to stay within a few dozen miles of each other, the subs may be hundreds of miles from the main group. They will likely operate in clearly defined ASW kill zones, into which only they are allowed to operate and shoot. This is designed to minimize the chances of a "blue-on-blue" ASW encounter.
Hunting SSGNs is a most interesting game, different from other ASW tasks. Unlike SSBNs, which run silent and deep, the CVBG relies on mobility for its defense. And when the carrier moves swiftly, so must the hunting SSGN. Speed reveals any submarine's vulnerability. Speed creates noise and degrades sensor performance. The SSNs tasked to defend the carrier know both where and how fast the battle group is going, and can position themselves in ambush for whatever missile-carrying hunter may be listening. In addition, the American force may have the edge of a Surveillance Towed Array System (Surtass) ship supporting the CVBG. Using an advanced towed array, the Surtass ships are like mobile SOSUS listening posts, and the data collected can be forwarded to the CVBG commander and the hunting SSNs.
The pattern of this hunt will be sprint-and-drift. The hunters on both sides alternately race forward, then slow down to listen. As in all undersea encounters, the side that can hear first and farthest away has the biggest advantage. Knowing where and when an SSGN would have to approach, the U.S. sub has the ability to stay quiet and wait for the Oscar to come to it. Because of its need to obtain targeting data from the Russian RORSAT, the Oscar has to come shallow periodically to raise its satellite data link masts. This causes hull popping and mast flow noises. Thus it is entirely likely that the 688I can be guided by targeting updates via the ELF/VLF radio circuits to a point where it will be able to obtain a direct path passive sonar contact to the Oscar. This will probably occur at a distance of 10,000 to 16,000 yards.
As in the hunt for the Typhoon, the 688I must go to an extremely quiet operating routine, to remain undetected by the towed array of the Oscar. But unlike the hunt for the boomer, here time is of the essence. Potentially, the Oscar can fire its missiles once it is within range of the CVBG. This means it must be eliminated quickly and effectively. The U.S. skipper is likely to try maneuvering to a position behind the Oscar, so that any torpedo hit will strike near the propeller shafts. This is likely to pop the shaft seals, flooding the engine room of the Russian boat and hopefully sinking it. All the while the fire control technicians operating the BSY-1 system will be "polishing the cannonball" on the firing solution to the Oscar. At 6,000 to 8,000 yards, assuming the Oscar has not yet heard them, the U.S. skipper may launch a pair of wire-guided Mk 48 ADCAPs. These are fired initially in the slow-speed setting, using the wires to guide the weapons and provide data back to the U.S. boats. The fire control technicians may even try to "swim" the weapons under a thermal layer to mask their noise signature from the sensors of the Oscar.