“Sorry I had to abandon you like that, Commander,” said the captain.
“But my orders were to get us out to sea as soon as you were safely aboard this ship. Now, how much do you know about the reason for your presence here?”
“Not a hell of a lot,” answered Mac.
“As a marine salvage expert with Nose, I expect it could be anything from a sunken vessel to an archeological find of some sort.”
The captain looked his guest full in the eyes before lowering his voice and continuing.
“Actually, it’s neither.
Admiral Long gave me the authority to give you the full rundown, so here goes.
“Approximately fifteen hours ago, our SOSUS array located beneath the waters off the north shore of San Clemente Island picked up the sound of an unidentified underwater intruder approaching from the west. A P-3 was scrambled from Miramar, and after sowing an extensive sonobuoy field, picked up the signature of what was believed to be a Soviet India class submarine.”
The mention of this particular class of vessel caused Mac to interrupt.
“Did you say India class, Captain? On what evidence did they base such a presumption?”
Prepared for just such a reaction, the CO directly responded “As you know, the India class is rarely encountered in the open ocean, especially near our own coastline.
Supposedly designed as an auxiliary salvage and rescue vessel, such a diesel-powered sub is characterized by a predominant humped casing that extends from the rear of the sail all the way back to the mid stern. This casing is lined with free-flood holes, and has two semi recessed wells cut into its surface. A pair of mini subs are believed to be carried in these wells. Since little is known about the propeller signature of these rarely seen craft, Command was able to identify it by the characteristic turbulence produced as seawater washed through these wells and free-flood holes.”
For an entire year, Mac had been trying to accumulate as much knowledge as he could about this very same class of vessel. So far, his study had produced little of consequence. Yet now to have possibly tagged such a submarine right in their very own backyard was an astounding accomplishment, and Mac urged the captain to continue.
“Once it was positively identified as being an India, Command decided to discreetly follow its movements before moving in to intercept. A Spruance and a trio of frigates were called upon to do this job, and instructed to silently loiter off the coast of Catalina while the P-3 continued sowing sonobuoys in the bogey’s path.
“Because of the nature of this submarine, Command believed that a Soviet attack sub could have gone down in this same area without our knowing it. Such a find would be the intelligence coup of the century, and we continued playing our cards most carefully.
“It was at about this same time that yet another SOSUS array stationed off the southern tip of San Clemente triggered. The hydrophones of this array relayed the signature of a totally different type of submersible.
This particular craft had no noticeable propeller wash, and seemed to be moving along the seafloor on mechanically-powered treads of some type.”
This sup rise revelation caused Mac to gasp in astonishment.
Struggling to control his emotions, Mac fought to keep his voice from quivering as he asked, “And just where is this second bogey now, Captain?”
The C.O. sensed his guest’s excitement, and answered while pointing to the chart spread out on the table before them.
“We believe right here, off the southwest tip of San Clemente, only a few miles from where we originally tagged them. It looks like we really caught Ivan with his hands in the cookie jar this time. Commander.
As you very well know, these are heavily restricted waters, where it just so happens we’ll be testing the new AD CAP torpedo sometime next week.”
“Such coincidences never cease to amaze me,” reflected Mac facetiously.
“Has Admiral Long mentioned how he’d like us to deal with this matter?”
The C.O. nodded.
“He certainly has. In fact, we were just waiting for your arrival to get on with setting the trap.
“The Fanning will be proceeding directly to the waters off San Clemente’s southern tip. As we arrive in this sector, our other ships will be closing in on the opposite end of the island. Their quarry is the India class vessel, while we drew the smaller, tracked submersible. Once we’re in position, well attack concurrently, using whatever means necessary to get the trespassers topside.”
“I doubt if they’re going to just ascend and surrender, Captain,” offered Mac.
“I hear you. Commander. We’ll do our best to convince them that this course of action is in their best interest, short of blowing those Red bastards out of the water.”
Mac was glad to hear this. He had come too far to merely sit back and watch the tracked submersible be blown apart for expedience sake. For one solid year he had been on the trail of this elusive vehicle, and he certainly wanted to have more than just a charred hunk of bent metal to show for his efforts.
The frigate’s deck trembled under the force of a good sized swell, and Mac reached out to the table to steady himself. Beside him the Captain did likewise.
“It’s going to be another hour until we’re in position, Commander. Why don’t you go down to the wardroom and grab a cup of Java and a sandwich. I’ll make certain you’re up here when the fun starts.”
Though his physical concerns were far from his mind, the Captain’s suggestion sounded good to Mac. A seaman was recruited to lead Mac below deck, and he willingly followed.
The Farming’s wardroom contained a small, comfortably furnished lounge. With a mug of black coffee in hand, Mac seated himself on a leather couch. Thankfully he was the only one present and thus had the perfect opportunity to put his jumbled thoughts in order.
Mac seriously doubted if the frigate’s CO knew how vitally important this mission was for him. Twelve long months of frustrating, exhaustive work was about to come to fruition. When Admiral Long initially gave him this assignment, he never dreamed it would possess his time so. And now his hundreds of hours of hard work were at long last going to pay off.
It all started innocently enough, when the Swedish Navy came to them with the first photos of the tracks themselves. These shots were taken in the waters off the Swedish naval facility at Karlskrona. Mac was given the job of analyzing them, and he immediately came up with the theory that they were created by a Soviet-made mini-sub. Yet little was he prepared when similar subterranean tracks began popping up in such diverse places as Norfolk, Sicily, San Francisco, and Subic Bay.
Until very recently, all these sightings were merely passive ones. Yet this was to change when the warhead was reported missing from the waters off Kwajalein. There was no doubt in Mac’s mind that the Soviets could have been behind such a clever machination. Their past behavior certainly showed that they had both the will and the audacity to pull such a thing off. Yet until the tracked submersible was perfected, they really never had the means to accomplish such an unparalleled mission.
Now that the submersible was operational, the Soviets were taking full advantage of its unique capabilities. Its presence off the coast of San Clemente was proof positive of this. It was common knowledge that weapons such as the Harpoon and Standard missiles had been initially tested here. To Mac’s knowledge, the Soviets had never been able to steal one of these prototypes, that had since passed their trials and were now a major component of the Fleet.
The AD CAP torpedo was one of the newest weapons systems about to go into production. Designed to run at speeds topping that of the Soviet’s quickest submarines, the AD CAP (for advanced capability) represented the West’s latest high-tech success story. It incorporated unique state-of-the-art design elements that cost tens of millions of dollars in R and D. If the Soviets were able to get their hands on such a prototype, not only could they produce one of their own at a fraction of the development costs, but they could learn how to counter it as well. A cheap decoy could be made that would be utilized to draw the torpedo away from the original target, and all America’s effort would have been wasted.