USS Kidd (DDG 100)
100 miles Northeast Fiery Cross Reef
“Helos Launched. Coordinating their search with ASW commander.”
“Very well. Carry on.” Captain Harris walked back to the plotting table. While he fully expected further developments from the Chinese, they hadn’t seen anything yet. If they were going to launch
“Vampire! Vampire! Multiple cruise missiles inbound. Range one five zero miles bearing two niner zero.”
Harris glanced at his first officer who was scribbling furiously on a notepad and using a calculator. “They launched early.”
“Yep. By at least fifteen minutes, I’d guess.”
“Yeah, I think the range of the new 120D’s took them by surprise. Most of the F-15 and F-22 attacks have been with C models.” Thomas spent a few more minutes with his calculations, just to be sure he had it right. “That puts a time on target attack hitting the island in about thirty minutes.”
“Sparks, get the ASW commander on the horn. We’ve got to find those subs.”
While all the ships in the task force carried helicopters and most had sonar, there were no longer dedicated Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) ships in the US Navy. In the cold war days, there would be Frigates patrolling the edge of the task force. Today, the Burkes had taken on that role as well. Like the anti-air role, one ship commander or squadron commander was normally tasked with ASW for the group, similar to the way the Air Warfare officer was assigned to lead the anti-air component of the task force. In this case, the very large number of helicopters embarked on the LHD and LSDs of the amphibious warfare group currently centered on Fiery Cross Reef meant that the ASW commander was stationed there. For the past two days, a frantic and methodical search had been underway, trying to find the Chinese submarines that everyone assumed were currently sneaking up on the Navy ships.
“Launch warning! Multiple launches detected on the Chinese mainland. Expect inbound ballistics in fifteen to twenty minutes.”
That was the next step. The final step would be the submarines.
“Zulu Whiskey to all ships. Execute evasive pattern delta.”
Evasive pattern delta meant that every ship within one hundred miles of Fiery Cross Reef would immediately change their current course and sprint for ten minutes. This maneuver was designed to confuse any satellite-based tracking system and add enough movement to throw off their tracking solution. Without tracking support from aircraft or ships, the missiles would have to rely on satellite tracking which was notoriously imprecise. While the missiles were radar guided, they relied on external tracking for their mid-course corrections and any gross movements of the fleet would reduce their hit percentages. After more than twenty missile attacks on US Navy forces, they were starting to understand their capabilities and how to counter them.
“Helm, set course two four zero. Flank speed.”
“Two four zero, flank, aye.” The Kidd surged forward to her maximum sustained speed. Like all her gas turbine equipped sisters, the Kidd accelerated much faster than a traditional steam boiler ship. The new engines sacrificed some range but the ease of maintenance and flexible instant power more than made up for that.
The real concern for Harris was the Chinese subs. To date, they had only participated in the attack on Guam and they had very little data on the capabilities and attack profiles. This lack of data meant that they were mostly guessing about what would happen next, which did not give the officers and men of the USS Kidd a comfortable feeling.
There were two P-8 Poseidon anti-submarine aircraft in the air, attempting to sanitize the area. However, it was extremely difficult to detect a modern diesel submarine creeping along on electrics. They made almost no mechanical noise and if they were moving slowly, there was no propeller noise either. The good news was that the various ships of the task force could “listen” to the take of the
“Transient! Transient! We have a submarine preparing to shoot!”
“Helm! All Stop!”
“All stop, aye!”
“Weps, prepare a snapshot an ASROC!”
“ASROC ready AYE!”
“Do we have lock on the transient?”
“Negative sir! Wait.. Wait… Torpedo! Torpedo in the water! Bearing…. Bearing two four zero, course two two zero. The torpedo is heading away from us.”
“Helm! All ahead one third.”
“One third, aye.”
“ASW! Get me a hard lock on that boat!”
“Working, sir.”
“Transient! Transient! I have multiple submarine contacts. Torpedos! Multiple Torpedoes running.”
“ASROC, Fire!”
“I don’t have a hard lock sir. Only a guess based on torpedo running time.”
“Best guess then. We need to disrupt this attack.”
“Firing.” As the VLS roared with the launch of the VL-ASROC, Harris consulted the plot again. It looked like more than one submarine had managed to infiltrate close enough to Fiery Cross Reef to launch a torpedo attack on one or more of the Amphibious Ready Group. He could see the multiple plots of other ships firing their ASROCs. The group’s response to the missile launch had ensured that the submarines had nice noisy targets to shoot at as the ships came up to flank speed.
Unlike the Kidd, the big LHD and LSD ships didn’t have any defenses against a torpedo attack. It was supposed to be the job of the destroyers to keep submarines AWAY from the big boys. Harris wondered if they had planned this in advance or had just gotten lucky. Either way, this could end badly.