Weiss wasn’t convinced. “But instead of letting them sleep, they’ll go to battle stations for sure. Going through the fence safely and undetected is just step one. We still have to get the UUVs to the facility, survey the target, place the beacons, fire the torpedoes, and then get out of there.”
Jerry calculated, “Given the distance from the airstrip to the facility, the Russians can have helicopters overhead in about fifteen minutes or so. Instead of alerting them at the very end, we would be waking them up as we come in. Kind of like kicking the bee’s nest before you get the honey.”
“I’d much prefer being on the way out by the time any ASW helos arrive,” declared Weiss.
“And I’d like to withdraw my suggestion,” Ford replied sheepishly.
“Not entirely, Lieutenant,” Jerry countered. “I like the idea of blinding — or more properly muffling the sensor. Don’t knock it out, just keep it from hearing anything.”
“Cover the cables with something,” Weiss suggested.
Jerry explained, “Technically, we only need to cover up the hydrophones that stick out on either side. The center body holds the electronics. You can’t break or damage the cables, though. The system would interpret that as a fault.”
Weiss concluded, “So we bury it. The bottom is mostly silt and sand. If we could scoop up some of the mud…”
“Even if we could jury-rig some way of getting the mud and loading it into UUV canisters, it would take too long,” remarked Jerry.
Lieutenant Ford had followed the two senior officers’ reasoning carefully. He knew the UUVs’ design better than anyone else aboard. He tried to imagine some way of gathering material from the bottom…
“Captain, would lead shot work?”
“The ballast!” Weiss exclaimed.
Ford nodded and expounded on his theory. “We’d have to make the UUVs negatively buoyant for their ‘gliding’ approach. To restore neutral buoyancy, I’d have to dump ballast anyway.” He smiled. “We could come in and drop the lead shot on the hydrophones… sort of like a dive-bombing run.”
“More like glide bombing, but the idea is similar. This could work.” Jerry thought for a moment, then added, “The UUVs’ 3-D imaging sonar is more than accurate enough to locate the individual hydrophones and guide the vehicle over them. Well done, Lieutenant.” He clapped Ford on the shoulder.
“Two UUVs, left and right hydrophone sets,” Weiss observed. “We follow the UUVs through the gap and we are in. But where? Until we cover the hydrophones, we’re still vulnerable. I’m betting if we have to get low enough to avoid the mines detecting Jimmy, one of the Sever modules would still be able to hear us as we approached.”
Ford scratched his head. “Theoretically, the UUVs could create a gap in the field by placing a mine-clearing charge. But the sensor net would hear the explosion…”
Jerry’s expression became solemn. He tapped a spot on the navigation chart display. “Walter’s closest to this location?”
Ford nodded.
“Then instead of recovering Walter first, we should pick up José while Walter surveys this section of the minefield.” The others noted the small cross that someone had added to mark the place where Toledo lay.
“You believe the mine that sank Toledo left a gap in the mine barrier,” Weiss realized. “But wouldn’t they refresh the field?”
Jerry shrugged. “I don’t think so. The Russians have been pretty busy. They may not have gotten around to it. And it’s entirely possible that they don’t even know there is a missing mine. Remember, the sensor net wasn’t set up until after Toledo was lost. The Russians couldn’t possibly have heard the mine explosion that far away, not with the sonars they have on the ships near the construction site. We just have to confirm this theory with Walter.”
“Thank you, USS Toledo and Captain Lenny Berg,” Weiss observed. “By the way, when we found her, we hovered overhead and held a memorial for her crew. Tom Norris is an ordained minister, and he led the service.”
Jerry smiled, although it was a sad one. “I hadn’t heard about that. Thanks, Lou. After this is all over, hopefully we can tell Jane Berg everything. And I’ll say a prayer, when we’re nearest. That’s about all we’ll have time for right now.”
“A missing mine should give us a thousand-yard gap,” Weiss reasoned.
“Which we can hit precisely, with the UUVs navigating for us,” Jerry argued.
Weiss nodded. “Agreed, but we’ll have to line up well out in front of the opening, and once we commit to entering the gap, we’ll be unable to maneuver freely for ten, perhaps fifteen minutes. In fact, we’ll probably have to manually guide the UUVs to begin their ‘bomb run.’”
“I suspected as much,” said Jerry. “And we’ll need to be close to the hydrophones so the lead shot doesn’t scatter too much; say a foot or two off the bottom. Tricky.”
Ford looked at Mitchell with apprehension. “Commodore, the minimum range for the imaging sonar is one meter, three point three feet. For the last foot or two the pilot will be essentially blind. We won’t be able to accurately place the lead shot on the target.”
“We’ll work on that, Mr. Ford. If I can train a pilot to drive a UUV into a torpedo tube, I think I’ll be able to help you and Mr. Lawson on this.”
Incredulous, Ford stammered, “Dr… drive a UUV… manually… into a torpedo tube? That’s… that’s impossible!”
“Mr. Ford,” Gibson chimed in, “they did it. Twice. I was there.”
Ford swallowed hard and looked at Jerry with amazement. The lieutenant then started writing down his to-do list. “I have to calculate the amount of ballast that the UUVs will be able to drop and still stay neutrally buoyant.”
“And the battery levels,” Jerry added. “You’ll save some power during the ‘bomb run,’ but once they’re past the sensor net, you’ll want them to use their best speed to reach the facility so they can begin the sonar survey.”
Ford continued to make notes.
“After we figure out how to glide the UUVs properly, we’ll practice a little ‘formation flying.’ Once you and Lawson get comfortable with manually flying the UUVs, we’ll do a few dry runs to familiarize you with how it feels.” Turning toward Weiss, Jerry asked, “How long before we’re ready to make the attempt, Captain?”
“We’ll need to recharge the UUVs’ batteries once they’re recovered. That will take about five, maybe six hours. Then the practice runs. Top off the batteries again and load the lead shot, at least twelve hours, Commodore.”
“Very well. Let’s get started, people.”
With the planning meeting over, Weiss and the others headed forward, that is, with the exception of the chief of the boat. Gibson caught Jerry’s eye and motioned for the commodore to join him over at the DC locker at the back of UCC.
Walking over to Gibson, Jerry spoke quietly, “What can I do for, COB?”
“Sir, we’ve been shipmates before, so let me get straight to it. Some of the crew is a little uneasy about the ‘incident’ you and the skipper had earlier. A lot of people heard it, and there is some concern that it has raised doubts as to the skipper’s abilities; doubts that might have unfortunate consequences later. It was felt that I should quietly bring this to your attention.”
“I see,” replied Jerry, a slight grin on his face. “Well, you can assure the XO that this is still Captain Weiss’s boat, and that I have no desire to take over.”
Gibson smiled. “I didn’t figure it would take you long to see through that smokescreen.”
“Nope, it’s pretty obvious. But that just means he’s a good executive officer. You can also tell him I appreciate his tact. You’re the perfect messenger, Master Chief.”