Victoria said, “Tell the helicopter to dip and go active. Right now. And be ready to drop their last torpedo quick if it’s right under them.”
“Roger, ma’am.”
Victoria said, “OPS.”
“Yeah, boss?”
“Turn the ship around.”
OPS looked confused. “Uh… boss?”
She said, “Reverse the ship’s course. Now. If that submarine is headed towards us, we’re going to walk right into their torpedo. I want to keep our separation. The P-8 and the helicopter are right on top of it. If we can give them more time to hunt, we’ll have a better chance of success. If we keep going this direction, we’re putting a time limit on how long our air assets have.”
“Don’t we have to reach the Panama coast by a certain time?”
“OPS, if we don’t sink this submarine, we won’t reach the Panamanian coast.”
“Cutlass, Farragut, Air Boss wants you to dip and start pinging.”
“Roger, setting up for dip.”
“And she says be ready to drop your torp right away.”
Juan said, “Roger, Farragut.”
The helicopter came in to a hover, lowering its AN/AQS-22 Airborne Low Frequency Sonar (ALFS) into the water. The MH-60R had the most advanced dipping sonar in the world. It was incredibly sensitive, and had improved detection ranges greatly over previous models.
Plug said, “Are you all set up for the second weapon drop?”
Juan had been ready this time. “Checklist complete. Just waiting to get target confirmation.”
Plug said. “Uhh… I think you’ve got confirmation.”
“Cutlass, Pelican, we have visual contact! Periscope just off your right side.”
Plug said, “Drop it. Drop it now!”
Juan, surprised, hit the button and again felt the shudder of the aircraft as the torpedo let loose.
“Conn, sonar, torpedo in the water, bearing two-three-zero!”
The submarine captain yelled, “Evasive maneuvers. What’s the range?”
“Less than one thousand meters, sir.”
The captain could hear the pinging through the hull. The pinging came loud and fast. It must have been right on top of them.
“I didn’t see the ’chute,” said AWR1.
Plug said, “Alright, just listen.” He shook his head. “Shit, I mean, I guess just watch. We can see it right—”
Juan said, “Farragut Control, we just dropped our torpedo. We have visual of the sub.”
AWR1 said, “Torpedo’s pinging. Pings getting faster. I think she’s acquired her target. I hear… holy shit. That’s gotta be a hit.”
“471, Farragut Control, roger. Please provide BDA.”
The ocean around the periscope transformed into a white web as wide as a football field. The white circle rose into a surge of white water, erupting into the air.
“My god,” said Juan.
The area of water glistened as it became covered with an oil slick, bubbles of air breaking the surface every few seconds.
“Farragut, Cutlass, we have visual. Torpedo has hit the sub.”
“Roger, Cutlass. Bravo Zulu.”
25
Admiral Manning stood on the admiral’s bridge of the USS Ford.
The phone rang. “Sir, this is the battle watch captain. Our Growlers have just finished tanking and are en route to Farragut’s position. The F-35s are about thirty minutes behind them. Also, sir, the JSTARS is on station.”
“Thank you,” was all he said in reply, hanging up the phone.
He looked over at the Zumwalt-class destroyer to their starboard side. It was heaving up and down in the water as they steamed north at close to twenty knots.
The admiral commanded thousands of personnel, and controlled billions of dollars in military assets. Some of the most technologically sophisticated warfighting machines on the planet. But now, with his daughter in trouble, he felt powerless. All he could do was wait.
The E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System, or JSTARS, had taken off from Robins Air Force Base in Georgia early that morning. Their mission was supposed to last for twelve hours, with a concentration of the work being done in the Eastern Pacific, just west of Panama.
Two members of the crew were not US Air Force. One was NSA, and one was CIA. Both sat next to each other, the US Air Force major watching their screens. One of his airmen sat next to the two men, managing the inverse synthetic aperture radar.
The airman said, “Sir, we have four surface tracks bearing two-six-zero for about”—he moved his cursor to measure the distance—“two hundred nautical miles. Based on the ELINT, sir… yup, that’s the Chinese.”
The NSA and CIA men had sophisticated surveillance equipment that canvased huge swaths of the Pacific for electronic signals. The CIA had provided intelligence that there might be a group of Chinese Navy ships headed towards the Panama Canal region, and that they might have had orders to open fire on the US Navy destroyer that was also in the area. The aircraft carrier USS Ford had a whole strike group but was still far to the south, so the Farragut was pretty much on her own. But no one had been able to pinpoint the location of the Chinese ships.
Until now.
It was a huge game of cat and mouse. Thousands of square miles of ocean. Hundreds of ships headed to and from the Panama Canal Zone at any given time. Both the Chinese and the Americans had their radars off, likely trying to remain hidden from the other until the last minute.
It was a sound strategy. If the ships kept their military surface search radars turned off, the adversary ships would not likely be able to use their passive electronic surveillance equipment to identify them.
Once those military radars were flipped on, however, one could cross-reference the radar track with the knowledge that the military radar had originated from it, then the cat would have found the mouse.
As soon as the JSTARS aircraft had gotten into range, it began operating on the same encrypted datalink network that the E-2 connected to the USS Farragut with.
JSTARS, however, had certain highly classified sensors on board that went well beyond normal electronic surveillance measures.
The NSA man said, “Alright, move your ISAR to check out this group here.”
The Air Force man did as requested. Sure enough, the screen showed a pattern of pixels that resembled a group of warships.
“That them?”
“Certainly looks like it to me.”
“Major, recommend you vector in one of those F-18s to take a look.”
A few minutes later, one of the F-18G Growlers flew near the group of suspected Chinese ships, using its onboard camera to take pictures and then transmit them back to both the JSTARS aircraft and the E-2D.
The CIA man on board JSTARS said, “Yup. Those are Chinese warships.”
The major in the JSTARS aircraft began typing.
JSTARS: FARRAGUT, we have located the four Chinese surface vessels — transmitting their position now.
FARRAGUT TAO: Roger JSTARS, copy tracks.
The major made a call to the pilots flying the aircraft. “Gents, how are we on fuel?”
“About another hour on station, sir, then we’re going to have to return to base.”
The major typed.
JSTARS: FARRAGUT, JSTARS has 1+00 on-station time remaining. Interrogative intentions, over?