Mack had raised the Type 18 periscope while the OOD rode the leaner, less detectable, Type 2 attack periscope. Two sets of eyes were better than one, especially since the sea state could easily mask quiet surface contacts. Once they were near ordered depth, the tops of both periscopes were intermittently awash in the four-foot swells, which were frequently topped with significantly higher waves.
In order not to broach, Cheyenne had to take the swells, caused by a distant storm, no more than forty-five degrees forward of the beam. Otherwise, she would have a tendency to pitch with a ten-second period due to the ninety-foot wavelength of sea state four. Pitching up or down with Cheyenne‘s forward momentum could result in an uncontrollable angle, causing either the sail to be exposed during an up angle or the stern to be exposed during a down angle. Exposing the stern was more dangerous because the seven blades of Cheyenne’s screw would pass through the air-water interface, causing unwanted high-torque jolting of the shaft as each exposed blade once again encountered the water. The weather on the surface was terrible, with violent thunderstorms breaking over the entire region. The power and majesty of the storms were breathtaking, but Mack found himself thinking more about how much they might be affecting flight operations on board Independence. He knew how much bad weather could degrade surface ship operations. That was just one of the many reasons he loved working far beneath the turbulent surface. Unlike their surface counterparts — and especially pilots and land-based soldiers — submariners were rarely affected by the weather, except when they needed to go to periscope depth.
On behalf of the crew, Mack decided to keep the time at periscope depth to a minimum. After copying the SSIXS broadcast and verifying that there were no surface contacts in the vicinity, Mack ordered the OOD to proceed deep beneath the storm, which unfortunately had eroded the first thermal layer, causing an isotherm (constant temperature) from the surface to over six hundred feet.
Six hours earlier, Cheyenne had arrived safely at her rendezvous point with the carrier Independence one hundred miles northwest of Natuna Island. The entire Independence Battle Group was now heading in the direction of the Spratly Islands. Cheyenne’s current assignment was to patrol the nearby waters in search of any enemy submarines that might try to sneak up on the Battle Group.
In a way, Cheyenne was operating like a fighter pilot assigned to air cover. She was Independence‘s first line of ASW defense, 130 miles ahead where the noise of the Battle Group’s ships would not degrade Cheyenne’s sonars, and where the F-14s from Independence could, in better weather, provide about a ten-hour heads-up to Cheyenne on approaching surface targets.
Mack was looking forward to the escort duty, a chance to be the SSN(DS) (direct support) for which the Los Angeles class was originally built. Not only would it be a nice change of pace but, more important, it meant he could have assistance from the carrier if and when he needed it.
The only problem was that Cheyenne was alone. Instead of sharing the 180 sector forward of the Battle Group with two other SSNs, Mack had it all. That was fine for the prevention of mutual interference, especially in a shooting war, but it was an impossibly large area of responsibility for a single SSN.
Independence was the last active member of the Forrestal class of aircraft carriers. These vessels, the first real “supercarriers,” were built during the 1950s. By 1997 they all had been decommissioned except Independence. At one point, there had been plans to turn “Indy’s” sister ship, Forrestal, into a training carrier, but those plans had been scrapped due to budget cuts. Independence herself had been scheduled for decommissioning in October of this year, but Mack suspected that this war might change things.
All aircraft carriers’ strength lay with their aircraft, and CV-62 was no exception. Independence’s aircraft were as good or better than any combat aircraft in the world. Her current complement of aircraft included twenty F-14 Tomcats for long range interceptor missions. With their new precision strike capability, the F-14s were sometimes referred to as the “bomb cat.” Independence also carried F/A-18 Hornets, which were perhaps the best dual-capable (fighter/attack) aircraft in the world. The Independence air wing commander, now an aviator O-6 major command billet, could use them to defend the carrier or to attack far-off targets on land or at sea. Also on board were four E-2C Hawkeyes and four EA-6B Prowlers. The Hawkeyes were early warning planes and each one carried the APS-145 radar in a large disk connected to the top of its fuselage. The Prowlers specialized in radar jamming and other forms of electronic warfare.
Perhaps her most valuable aircraft, at least as far as Mack was concerned, were the S-3B Vikings, the submariner’s favorite. This was one of the world’s great aircraft designs, combining an extremely long range and an excellent ability to hunt “enemy” submarines. During several exercise encounters with S-3s, Mack had learned to respect them greatly, and he was glad that they were on his side.
The only aircraft that could possibly compete with the Viking was the SH-60 Seahawk helicopter. It lacked the range of the S-3, but Cheyenne had seen for herself just how effective the Seahawks could be. This was the aircraft that had earlier destroyed the Chinese Han submarine while Cheyenne tracked their actions by sonar, and Independence carried six of them. Because of her immediate locality to the war zone and the risk from Chinese submarines, Independence had been designated as the test ship for the new SH-60Rs — the newest type of Seahawk. This was the first to carry both the new airborne low-frequency dipping sonar, usually referred to as ALFS, and sonobuoys. It also had two torpedoes on board — either the powerful Mk 50 or the older Mk 46. These factors combined to make the SH-60R the most dangerous short-range ASW platform hovering over the seas.
Even with all this firepower on board, the carrier still had her serious vulnerabilities. She needed to be escorted by surface vessels, and her entire group was vulnerable to modern enemy submarines. And that was where Cheyenne came into play. She would act as an advance party for Independence, proceeding well ahead of the Battle Group and either clearing a safe path or warning them of possible dangers that the F-14 radars couldn’t detect. This combination of surface ships, aircraft, and submarines resulted in what Mack referred to as “synergism,” where the end result of operating together would be far more devastating to the Chinese than if each warfare community operated alone.
Unmindful of the weather, the Independence Battle Group got under way, steaming northward in the direction of the Spratlys. Travelling at flank speed, Cheyenne executed a quick sprint to regain her station in front of the Battle Group. If Mack fell behind the trailing edge of his moving search sector, Cheyenne would be free game, the so-called friendly fire problem that was a sad reality of warfare. When she was near the leading edge of her moving haven slightly over an hour later, Cheyenne slowed and waited.