PACFLT// ID S072RQ81//
NAVAL OPS/02
MSGID/PACOPS 6732/COMSUBPAC ACTUAL//
MSG BEGINS://
SEOPUNG MAKING WAY. WILL LEAVE SINPO VIA WEST ENTRANCE.
GOOD HUNTING, REGARDS SOOTY.
MSG END//
He read it, then handed the communication to Nikki Kaminski. She grinned.
“You did it. You got her out to play.” Nathan and Kaminski high fived each other.
Plan Kaminski, as Nathan had called it, or more properly Bull Run, had paid off. It was high stakes poker indeed.
The premise? Convince the North Korean leadership that an invasion was imminent. The cruise missile strikes had all entered North Korea from known South Korean missile battery sites. Kim would be more than ready to wave the nuclear axe in threat. Seopung and her Pukgukson-3 ballistic missiles were an integral part of that threat. She couldn’t launch from her home port, so she’d be impotent unless she put to sea.
It had been, and still was, a very dangerous ruse. The North Korean leader had to be put under pressure, but not too much.
It could have been different, but he’d swallowed it.
Seopung was leaving port. Now came the difficult part.
“ENGINEERING, BATTERY status?”
“Ninety eight percent, Sir.”
“Engineering, rig for snorkel down.”
Within a minute Engineering replied. “Snorkel retracting engine shutdown.”
“Flood one. Open and trim vents fore and aft. Make for depth. Down bubble twenty five, make your depth sixty. Speed six knots. Bearing three forty degrees.”
“Sixty at six knots aye Sir.”
USS Stonewall Jackson slipped deeper down into the dark cold North Pacific, the few surface wavelets, the only trace she left soon disappeared.
USS Stonewall Jackson moved closer to Sinpo, she was only ten miles away now. Nathan calculated their progress, and when they were just three quarters of a mile away he looked up from his conn. “Rig trim to ascend fore and aft. Come to periscope depth.”
“We are at periscope depth, Sir.”
Nathan selected a periscope pop up and scan, forty degree sweep. The scope briefly popped up and did its sweep, before disappearing below the surface.
He examined the view on his monitor. Using his fingers on the screen, he zoomed in on the exit from the base. A large cargo coaster was making its way out, and just visible behind was the sail of the Seopung.
“Weaps. Designate target Seopung as Tango one, bearing three five two degrees. Surface contact.”
“Seopung designated as Tango one, Sir.”
Nathan waited. He selected a periscope pop up and scan, forty degree sweep. The scope briefly rose up and did its sweep, then disappeared below the surface.
The view on his monitor showed Seopung diving. The large cargo coaster was still in the area. He had his first worrisome feeling about the coaster. Why the hell was she there?
His best Sonar operator was on watch, CPO Dan Benson. The crew called him the Virginia Visionary.
“Sonar, she’s diving, you getting a take?”
“I can hear her Sir, just. But there’s a lot of noise and confusion around, that surface vessel is making a mess of things. It doesn’t help that we’re in a bay area. It’ll get better in the open sea.”
“Ok Sonar.”
“What the fuck…” The sonar operator pulled his headset off.
“Sonar. Sir, we have an active ping from the surface vessel. There she goes again. Sir, I think we’ve an aspect change on the surface vessel. Hard to tell.”
He unhooked his microphone and hit the hooter. Whoop, whoop. “Boats Company. Battle stations, battle stations.” Whoop, whoop.
Nathan selected a periscope scan, forty degree sweep. Centered on the surface vessel. The scope briefly popped up and did its sweep, then disappeared below the surface.
He examined the view on his monitor.
“Yep, she’s headed right for us. Picked us up with the active ping.”
He wondered about helicopters. They’d be compromised now, anyway. He set up a three sixty scan. The periscope rose, did a three sixty and then retracted. He looked at the monitor searching the sky. Nathan selected aircraft search from the options. Negative. He knew though, they could be here in minutes.
“Sonar. I’m detecting a plunge entry from the surface vessel. Another and another. Sir, it’s confusion out there. More plunge entries. More props too.
Definite multiple subsurface props. Active ping from a surface vessel. Subsurface prop sounds. More plunge entries. I don’t know what to make of it.” Nathan frowned. What the hell…?
“SIR,” SAID LIEUTENANT Kaminski, “I think I might know what’s going on.”
“Go on.”
“Sir, I attended an underwater warfare seminar at the Naval Academy. A presenter from Lockheed Martin detailed the possibility of swarm submarines. This is where multiple mini-submarines are dispensed in order to swamp an attacking boat or to overwhelm defenses. Each mini-submarine may only carry one torpedo. They’re effectively suicide attacks, of course. Or the submarines may be unmanned. They were calling the dispenser a Sea Cow. That could be what’s happening here. The cargo coaster could be dispensing mini submarines; probably from a moon pool internal to the vessel. That’s why we’ve got multiple submerged props. The Sea Cow’s laying eggs.”
“Yeah, could be. I guess being a Ring Knocker has its advantages.” Nathan smiled. “Only joking. Given their level of their technology, I’d guess they’re not unmanned.”
“Sonar. Fish in the water, Russian type 53. Wait one… second fish in the water also type 53. Heading our way. Also more plunge entries.”
“Nikki, what did the seminar say about defense against a swarm?”
“Run. They’ll be short range vessels.”
“Good advice. In the meantime… Weaps. Snapshot, snapshot. Flood tube one and open outer doors. Let’s stuff a Mk 48 CBASS into that Sea Cow. Launch when ready. Speed fourteen knots. Come about, bearing one fifty. Come to speed twenty one knots when coming to bearing.”
“Weaps. Launching tube one. Now. Fish in the water and the fish is hungry.” USS Stonewall Jackson turned to withdraw.
“Sonar. Two type 53s still in pursuit.” They’re in our baffles now. Both coming in high.”
“Weaps, stream the lure fish.” He was attempting to lure the torpedo away from the submarine.
“Lure fish streamed, Sir.”
The lure streamed by reel far out into the submarine’s wake and trailed behind, communicating by cable. On USS Stonewall Jackson, the lure was kept in a streamlined pod mounted on a fin high above and away from the propeller. It was a listener, a detector and a deceiver of any weapons tracking the boat. Lures were at the cutting edge of submarine technology.
The Jackson’s lure, the TB29/A1, was built by the high priests of underwater deception, L-3 Chesapeake Sciences Corp with input by Lockheed Martin.
“Weaps, dance the lure.”
In this mode, the lure attempts to confuse the torpedo’s passive sonar by emitting simulated submarine noise, such as propeller and engine noise, which is more attractive than the boat to the torpedo’s sensors.
“The lure’s dancing, Sir.”
“Active Sir. The first fish has gone active, it’s pinging us. It’s heading down towards us. Second fish is active too.”
Damn it to hell. “Planesman. Make your depth, eighty.”
“Sonar. Range, incoming fish now point five miles.”
“Sing the lure,” commanded Nathan.
THE LURE POSSESSED a towed array sensor to detect incoming torpedoes. It also incorporated additional active sonar decoys. It received, amplified, and returned ‘pings’ from the torpedo, presenting a larger false target than the submarine. The lure was transmitting these pings to the incoming torpedoes.