“Commodore! I’m responsible for this boat and I don’t see the logic in ignoring two highly capable threats!” Weiss’s tone was defiant.
That was it. Jerry had had enough. He growled, “I’m coming to control!”
19
KNIFE FIGHT
Fighting his rising temper, Jerry almost forgot to tell LT Ford to take over in UCC and maintain contact on the unidentified approaching submarine. The panicky look on all of the operators’ faces helped to remind Jerry that as far as this crew was concerned, he was the next thing to God, and the wraith of a squadron commodore was a terrible thing to behold. As Jerry marched toward the control room, the memories of his own heated debates with his old Squadron 15 commodore, Captain Charles Simonis out in Guam, rushed into his mind. He remembered how he felt when his superior challenged his tactical prowess, and the memory had a calming effect. Jerry decided he wouldn’t relieve Weiss the moment he saw him — he’d at least give the man a chance.
He had no sooner entered the operations compartment, than Jerry saw a lone figure standing in the passageway. It was the executive officer, Joshua Segerson. He looked very unhappy.
“I had a sneaking suspicion I’d run into you, Commander,” Jerry rumbled as he advanced. “I’m in a bit of a hurry, so state your case while we walk.”
Segerson’s surprised expression told Jerry the XO had been expecting a knockdown drag-out fight. Recovering quickly, he said, “Sir, we’re between two hammers and the anvil. If we don’t engage Belgorod first, we’ll be in a three-way cross fire before we can get all our weapons away!”
“Interesting. I don’t see it that way,” Jerry replied sharply. “You and your skipper have a bad case of tactical tunnel vision. You’ve overlooked some clues that should tell you what is actually going on.”
The XO grabbed Jerry’s shoulder, bringing him to a halt. His appearance was a mix of anger and concern. “Commodore! Lou Weiss is a fine submarine officer, and a good captain. He’s proven himself to me, and the crew; I trust his judgment!”
Physically accosting a senior officer like that was unheard of. For a very brief moment, Jerry wanted to slam the man up against the bulkhead, but a fistfight would accomplish nothing. Instead, he took a deep breath, pivoted and faced Segerson. Speaking carefully, he told the XO, “I’m not saying he isn’t a good submariner, or a good captain. What I’m saying is that he’s about to commit a gross tactical error that will adversely affect the ability of this boat to complete its mission.”
Pointing over his right shoulder toward Toledo’s wrecked hull, he exclaimed, “My friend and his crew lie over there, dead, and millions more may join them if we don’t do this right! I’ll give the captain his minute in court, but if I’m not satisfied that he understands what he’s doing wrong, I will relieve him. Do I make myself clear?”
Segerson swallowed hard and nodded. “Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”
Still apprehensive, but now a little more hopeful, the XO followed Jerry into the control room. As soon as the pair emerged by the plotting tables, Weiss saw them and approached. He had a resigned air about him. “I assume I’m to be relieved, sir,” he said stoically.
Jerry barked, “Enough with the dramatics, Captain! Get your ass over here!” He then turned and took up a spot by the geoplot. Speechless, Weiss stepped down from the periscope stand and stood next to his executive officer. “You, too, COB!” Jerry called over toward the diving officer’s position.
“Yessir!” responded Gibson.
The master chief quickly squeezed by the fire control consoles and positioned himself to Weiss’s right.
“Let me summarize your argument,” Jerry spoke quickly. “If we don’t engage Belgorod first, we may not be able to get all our torpedoes away and escape before being counterattacked by both submarines.”
Weiss nodded. “Yes, sir. If we can get a shot off at Belgorod first, we can at least force her to evade and withdraw. By firing the weapons at slow speed, we’ll be able to delay them from being detected by either Belgorod or the fixed array for a little bit — just long enough for us to get some bearing separation.”
“And where do you plan on placing this attack, since Belgorod is in the towed array’s end-fire beam? We’d have to maneuver at least once to get a reasonable firing solution. That will take time; time we really don’t have with Kazan coming in from the northeast,” countered Jerry.
“It doesn’t have to be a great solution, Commodore, just good enough to make Belgorod run. Her skipper won’t know we don’t have a good solution.”
“But it will still take time, and it all hinges on your assumption that the shot will not be detected quickly. I believe this is an unrealistic assumption, Captain. Either Belgorod, or possibly Kazan, will likely hear the weapon soon after launch. Those boats have the best ASW sensors in the Russian fleet and even a mod seven ADCAP torpedo isn’t that quiet. Either one of the two subs will likely go active and shoot a salvo of weapons down the bearing. Maybe both.
“And once one sub goes active, the other will hear their comrade’s pinging and light off herself, and then we will be caught in a cross fire. This isn’t poker, Lou, it’s chess, and you’re getting pawn hungry. A good submarine commanding officer is aggressive; a great one knows when not to be.”
Weiss’s look was one of discouragement. He’d felt so confident. Jerry smiled faintly; he now had the CO’s attention. “You’ve made two big assumptions here, Lou. First, you assumed that Belgorod would act like any other attack submarine. This is a bad assumption. Belgorod is a Russian navy strategic asset. She and Losharik are your counterparts in the Russian Navy. They’re unique. And don’t forget that Belgorod is also a strategic nuclear asset.
“I’m convinced that Belgorod’s standing orders are to avoid a fight at all costs. She will run as far and as fast as possible from us.
Segerson was shaking his head, trying to follow all of his commodore’s finer points, but one thing just kept bothering him. “I don’t get it, sir, if you believe any torpedo we launch will be detected quickly, then how does attacking the facility first change anything?”
“Ah, very good, XO,” commended Jerry. “That deals with the second assumption, but I doubt you’d realize that you were making one. You were all being good little submariners trying to figure out how you could stay undetected, covert, during the attack. Well, we can’t. So we need to be as frickin’ loud as we possibly can!”
If human brains had circuit breakers, three of them would have popped then and there.
“What!?” blurted all three men in concert.
“I’m… I’m sorry, Commodore, but I don’t understand,” stammered Weiss.
“All right, then, here’s the new plan.” Jerry motioned for them to close ranks and look at the geoplot. “Walter is almost past the minefield, here, on our right, José is on the other flank about here, and we are in the middle. Once José clears the minefield we have both UUVs come up, say two hundred feet off the bottom, drop their NAEs and run like hell, away from the gap. Yes, that means we’re sacrificing them; fortunes of war.
“At the same time, Carter will also deploy countermeasures, as well as some mobile decoys. This will cause the majority, if not all of the Sever modules to alarm. But because there will be multiple, very loud, noise sources evenly dispersed along the line, it’ll mess with the system’s ability to provide good bearings. Even if they do manage to get a glimpse, there will be at least five possible moving targets for them to contend with, the Russians won’t know where to send their ASW assets. In the meantime, while they’re still crapping their pants, we’ll fire four weapons. The first two go out at twenty-eight knots, the second set at forty knots. When the second pair catches up to the first, we put the pedal to the metal on all four torpedoes, cut the wires, close the outer doors and run through the gap.