“In my estimation, if we catch such an American submarine in the North Sea, then our blast should indicate to them that an explosion has occurred about six thousand nautical miles from them. This is a huge distance. You, Colonel Nazarbayev, will also tell us whether an undersea blast or an explosion above sea water should be made. You should call up the brightest mathematicians and operations research specialists to carry out the calculations that will produce two clear and explicit answers. One, what should be the magnitude of the blast? Two, precisely at what distance from the submarine should it be made? Regarding the location of the blast in relation to the submarine, obviously, it depends on where we catch it. If the submarine is on its way to the North Sea, then the explosion should take place behind here and west of here, as if it is happening on United States soil. Am I clear so far?”
Colonel Nazarbayev followed Yevgeni’s explanation attentively, while taking notes in his notebook in his dense handwriting. He then placed his pencil on the table and combed through his close-cut hair with his fingers, trying to concentrate before he spoke.
“Yes, Colonel Yevgeni, you are clear, but there are quite a few problems. On one hand, a small blast will not create the seismological effect that we want the submarine to detect. On the other hand, a large explosion will do that, but then it would have to be executed much farther away from the submarine so that the blast’s acoustic noise does not reach it. In short, it is a table with two curves, one going up and the other going down, and we must find the right point at which the curves intersect each other. In my opinion, and at this stage I am going only by intuition, I believe that we will need to execute a large blast, using one to one-and-a-half tons of TNT, some tens of kilometers behind the submarine.”
It was now Brigadier General Dimitri’s turn to speak.
“Colonel Nazarbayev, do we have any such bombs of this weight in the
Navy, or even in the Air Force?”
“Yes”, replied Colonel Nazarbayev. “The Air Force has such bombs, but I’m not even sure that we need them. I think that to create the seismic effect, the blast should be made on the sea bed. Therefore, I think that we should perhaps use several depth charges clustered together. We will set the fuse of these bombs with a very long delay so that the explosion will take place only after the bombs reach the bottom of the sea. It is clear to me that we’ll have to conduct a test on our own nuclear submarine that would simulate the American vessel.”
Colonel Yevgeni removed his glasses and wiped them thoroughly with his handkerchief.
“If the depth charges suit our purposes”, said Yevgeni, placing his glasses back on his nose, “that will save a lot of time in preparing for the operation, as I assume that our Navy has a large variety of depth charges. Clearly it is preferable for us to conduct this operation from a Navy vessel that will lie in wait for the American submarine. It will facilitate everything and it will be much easier and simpler to execute the blast. If the Minister gives us his approval for this outline today, then we can fly to our large naval base in Murmansk tomorrow. With the letter that the Minister gave us, we will get everything that we ask for there and can deploy quickly for testing.”
Brigadier General Dimitri raised his hand, requesting to speak.
“If we have already covered the subject of the blast, then, with your permission, Colonel Yevgeni, I would like to mention several things about the wireless communication with the submarines. Of course, it touches on the area of electronic warfare, and that’s your baby, General Okhramenko.”
The General nodded his acknowledgement, and Colonel Yevgeni motioned to Dimitri to continue.
“First of all, we must all know how wireless communication is conducted in submarines. Like everything in the military, this consists of three parts. At a shallow depth, let us say up to 20 meters underwater, the option is to release an inflatable with an antenna to float on the water’s surface and to transmit and receive through it. Such an inflatable is almost out of use today, because it requires the submarine to reduce speed at a very shallow depth, making it visible and very vulnerable to a hit from the sea or from the air. In such a case, we should be ready with an appropriate communication block that will neutralize this inflatable. The maximum diving depth in training can be almost five hundred meters, which is about sixteen hundred feet. They conduct their navigation training at a depth of up to three hundred meters. At these depths, the Americans, like us, use an intricate network of underwater cables connected to hydrophones. These are transmitters and receivers which serve as relay stations for the submarines. This hydrophone network has two distinct advantages. One is high-quality communication, and the other is that the submarine does not reveal its location during the transmission. The big problem with this network, which is, in fact, our biggest advantage, is that the Americans, just like us, deploy such underwater networks only in areas that are near their territory and coasts. So when such a submarine arrives from the United States to the North Sea, for example, it is very far from the American underwater network and therefore cannot use it.
“The third possibility is the most practical one, and this is the method used by submarines when they are at medium to great depths. They use a frequency band called ELF, meaning extremely low frequency, 3 to 30 hertz. Do you understand? Not kilohertz and not megahertz but a few single hertz. Just so you fully comprehend, at these frequencies, the wavelength is between 10,000 to 100,000 kilometers. Do you get it? It’s insane! But we can also understand that this is the only way for submarines at medium to great depths to communicate with their headquarters in the United States. Just to give you a sense of scale, we have reception antennas for these unique frequencies near the Murmansk Naval Base, and the Americans also have them in the Michigan area, and each of these antennas is more than 50 kilometers long. By the way, the submarines tow a huge metal cable underwater for this purpose, which serves them as an antenna.”
Tea was served. Brigadier General Dimitri took a sip from his glass of tea and continued speaking.
“These frequencies — we must block them completely. That is the critical point of our entire plan”, he said, and turned to the general. “General Okhramenko, how is this done? You probably know better than anyone.”
The five team members awaited the words of the elderly general, but he said nothing, as though saying condescendingly, that’s all? There is nothing simpler than this for me.
When his answer was late in coming, Colonel Yevgeni prodded him to speak and he finally deigned to reply.
“The description you provided, Mr. Brigadier General, is correct, and I know it well. All the equipment and the instruments we need to execute communication blocks at all those frequencies are available, and are actually installed in quite a few of our large battleships. Therefore, I see no problem in carrying out the order.”
Colonel Yevgeni gazed at the General, trying to decide whether his confidence in the proposed solution had any bearing. The General, one of the old school of Soviet generals, was bloated with self-importance, thought Yevgeni, but he probably knows what he is doing, not least because the Minister of Defense, the father of all ageing Soviet generals, introduced him as one of the greatest experts in the field of electronic warfare that the world had ever known.
“General Okhramenko”, said Yevgeni. “I am very encouraged by your answer, but the last thing I want is a battleship in the region of the operation. Therefore, all the equipment and instruments that you referred to should quickly be installed on a civilian fishing boat that looks innocent. Only this vessel will be present in the perimeter of our operation and we shall conduct all our activities only from that.”