Shattered Trident

by Larry Bond

  “Status, Number One,” he demanded sternly.

  “Yes, sir. Contact four seven is heading westerly at four knots. Range estimate is ten thousand four hundred meters and opening. Recommend changing course to three one zero to intercept.”

  “Very well, Number One. Helmsman, starboard fifteen, steer three one zero.”

  The Indian captain was certain the fire control solution was inaccurate; he seriously doubted they could detect a new Type 041 Yuan-class submarine on the battery at ten kilometers. Still, the recommended turn was in the correct direction, and while Chakra swung to her new heading, he mentally ran through the math.

  Girish Samant’s reputation as the finest submariner in the Indian Navy was not without justification. Not only did he finish at the top of his class in every course of instruction, he consistently had the highest ratings on the submarines he served on. But far and away his greatest accomplishment was that he was the first Indian naval officer to successfully complete the Royal Navy’s Submarine Command Course, or “Perisher.” Initially one of five officers in his class, and the lone foreign officer, he was one of only three who successfully made it through the demanding six-month course. The other two failed, or “perished.” Upon graduation, Samant was cited for possessing an exceptionally ordered mind and coolness under duress.

  When he had been selected as Chakra’s second commanding officer a little over a year earlier, Samant considered it to be the pinnacle of his career. But then India joined the Littoral Alliance and he suddenly found his submarine thrust into war. With this change in perspective, his peacetime accomplishments abruptly seemed unimportant, trivial. Being the best submariner in the Indian Navy was no longer good enough. Now he was determined to become India’s most successful captain ever. So driven, he set out to sink as many ships as fast as he possibly could. And while tankers ran up the tonnage, sinking combatants, particularly submarines, brought more glory. This Chinese boat would not escape him.

  As he studied the fire control solution at his command desk, a nagging feeling began poking at him. The bearing rate seemed a little too high, and this reinforced his earlier thoughts; the contact was closer to him. “Number One, reduce the contact’s range to seven thousand meters and recompute target course and speed,” he ordered.

  “Aye, aye, sir,” replied Lieutenant Commander Maahir Jain. Within moments he reported back to Samant. “Captain, sir, revised target course is two eight zero, speed three knots. The starboard flank array has also picked up the contact, revised range estimate is seven thousand eight hundred meters.”

  Samant’s expression remained an impassionate mask. Even though his range estimate was vindicated as accurate, the flank array’s information merely confirmed a fact. There would be no premature congratulations; it would have to wait until the target was sunk. “Very well, Number One, stand by for target setup. Helmsman, right fifteen, steer three four zero. Deck officer, set combat quiet condition.”

  USS North Dakota

  “Confirm target zig, Sierra two-nine has changed course to the right,” reported Thigpen.

  Jerry looked up at the port large-screen display. It didn’t take a lot of imagination to guess where the Indian was going. “Well, that cinches it. He’s heading straight for the Yuan.”

  “Yes, sir. But it also means he’s turned toward us,” Thigpen replied with emphasis.

  “Yeah, that too,” Jerry conceded. The geometry of the encounter was terrible. Turning to parallel the Akula made the most sense, except that it drove them toward the Yuan. Trailing six thousand yards off the Indian’s starboard quarter meant they risked getting closer, sooner to the Chinese boat. Worse yet, being loosely between the two hostile submarines increased their risk of getting caught in a cross fire.

  “OOD, bring us parallel with the Akula, but slow us down to five knots. I need to consult with the XO.”

  “Aye, Captain, come right and parallel the Akula, slow to five knots,” acknowledged Iwahashi. Jerry nodded his approval and stepped out of the way. As the junior officer started the course change, Jerry saw Thigpen turn and approach the command workstation.

  “Our position stinketh, Skipper,” he lamented.

  “It most certainly does, XO, and I don’t think we can get to a better spot before the Akula reaches his firing position. Do you concur?”

  “Absolutely. Either we pound his ass now, or we break off and go with Plan B.”

  “I’m leaning toward the latter, Bernie. We need to separate ourselves from these two before they start shooting at each other.”

  “We could just slow down more and let the Akula pull farther ahead,” Thigpen observed. He placed his finger by the icon representing their boat on the geographic plot display and pulled it back to demonstrate a growing distance.

  Jerry considered his XO’s suggestion; it solved the problem with the Akula, but not the other boat. It would take too long to get the desired angular separation. The Chinese captain would likely launch at least one weapon when the Indian reacted to Jerry’s interference. North Dakota could still get caught within the acquisition cone of one of the torpedoes.

  “That doesn’t get us far enough away from the Akula, XO,” Jerry said. “Let’s come more to the right. If we steer forty-five degrees off the Indian’s course, we’ll pull away from his position faster, but still keep both targets out of the end fire beams of the towed arrays.”

  “Works for me, Skipper,” nodded Thigpen. “Then we can bring Minot in and hit the Akula with her bow mine-hunting sonar. That should scare him off.”

  Turning back to the geographic plot display, Jerry noted that Minot was five thousand yards off the Akula’s port quarter and a tad shallower. He’d have to get the UUV to move up along the Akula’s flank if both of the submarines were going to detect the high-frequency pulses.

  “All right, XO. Let’s increase Minot’s speed to nine knots and position her off the Akula’s beam. Then turn her to…” Jerry adjusted the position of Minot’s icon with the trackball until it was aligned with the Indian Akula and the Yuan. “… zero two one and have her go active on the bow mine-hunting array. And use the lowest power setting on the acoustic modem. We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves.”

  “Increase Minot’s speed to nine knots. When abeam of the Akula, come right to zero two one and have her say, ‘Tag, you’re it,’ aye, sir.”

  INS Chakra

  “Captain, contact four seven is steady on course two eight zero, speed three knots. Range estimate is six thousand eight hundred meters and closing. We have a good solution,” reported Jain.

  “Very well, Number One.” Samant looked at the clock on the bulkhead. It had taken his fire control watch about eight minutes to obtain a firing solution. That was acceptable.

  “Bring tubes one, two, seven, and eight to action state,” he ordered. The first two tubes held UGST torpedoes, the second two, MG-84 mobile decoys. Samant was taking no chances. He completely expected the Chinese commander to counterfire once he detected Chakra’s torpedoes.

  “New contact, bearing two three zero, off our port side,” announced the sonar operator over the intercom.

  Samant reached for his microphone, while simultaneously spitting out an order to his fire control team. “Begin tracking contact four eight. Be smart about it, Number One.”

  Keying the mike, he said, “Sonar, identify new contact.”

  “Captain, contact four eight is weak. No discernable bearing drift or tones. Possible submerged contact,” responded the sonar operator.

  Another submerged contact, thought Samant. The possibility of an ambush crossed his mind, but that would require a detection and coordination capability well beyond what the Chinese were known to possess. But even if it were just a coincidence, the second contact had shown up at a most inconvenient moment and he had to deal with it.

  “Bring tubes three and four to action state. Stand by for deliberate fire, contact four seven. Firing sequence tubes seven, one, and two.”

 
; USS North Dakota

  “Captain, Sierra two-nine is flooding tubes and opening outer doors,” said the sonar supervisor.

  “Very well, Sonar,” responded Jerry. “XO, command Minot to go active.”

  “Aye, sir. Command sent.”

  INS Chakra

  The acoustic intercept receiver suddenly began wailing its torpedo warning, followed immediately by a panicky voice over the speaker. “Active torpedo, bearing two three zero! Torpedo is close!”

  Samant didn’t have time to evaluate the situation; he had to react. Wasting no time, he responded with a fusillade of commands. “Fire tubes seven, one, and two. Rapid fire, contact four eight, tube three. Helmsman, ahead flank, right twenty-five, steer one six zero.”

  USS North Dakota

  “Torpedoes in the water!” cried the sonar supervisor. “Four weapons were launched!”

  “Pilot, ahead standard,” Jerry ordered. “Sonar, where are the torpedoes heading?”

  “None are closing, Captain. Two were fired at Sierra three-zero, the Yuan. Another was fired toward Minot. The fourth is heading directly away along Sierra two-nine’s course, possibly a decoy.”

  “Very well. Keep a sharp eye on those weapons,” Jerry demanded.

  “My God, that boat just barfed out a ton of torpedoes!” exclaimed an impressed Thigpen.

  “It helps when you have eight tubes and a rapid-firing system,” Jerry replied dryly.

  “Captain, Sierra three-zero has launched an acoustic countermeasure. Sierra two-nine is rapidly changing course to the right. He’s starting to cavitate!”

  “Pilot, ahead full!” shouted Jerry.

  The fire control party watched the large-screen displays as the tangled weave of sonar contacts quickly began to sort themselves out. The Indian Akula had spun about and headed southward at high speed. The Yuan turned toward the north and retreated as fast as she could, popping more countermeasures in her wake. The Indian torpedoes, jammed by the countermeasures, passed by where the Yuan was and were now spinning about in reattack circles, searching in vain for their target. The one fired at Minot never found its diminutive prey.

  Out of the cacophony of noise emerged a lone Chinese Yu-6 torpedo that ran after the Indian’s decoy. Frustrated by the lack of a hull to hit, the Chinese weapon kept making pass after pass as the decoy ran to the northwest.

  With all the torpedoes running about to the north, Jerry altered course to follow the Akula, which was still fleeing the scene at thirty-plus knots. Four torpedoes fired, with no hits. Jerry was understandably pleased with his crew’s performance.

  “Well done, everyone!” Jerry announced, beaming with pride. “You too, XO,” he added with a wink.

  “Gee, thanks, Skipper,” Thigpen responded indignantly. Both men broke out laughing.

  “No, Bernie, seriously, your team did really well. That stunt worked better than I had hoped.”

  Thigpen slowly shook his head. “You pulled another rabbit out of the hat, Skipper. I was pretty well convinced that Yuan was toast.”

  “I had my doubts too, XO. But everything worked out well in the end—at least from our perspective.”

  “That Akula skipper is probably one honked-off son-of-a-bitch right now,” Thigpen remarked ruefully.

  “Yes, I suspect he’s quite peeved,” agreed Jerry with a smile on his face. “He’ll just have to get over it.”

  14

  CONFRONTATION

  5 September 2016

  0600 Eastern Daylight Time

  CNN Headline News

  “The Indian naval base at Visakhapatnam was attacked last night in a major assault by Maoist terrorists. First appearing in the late 1960s, the movement is especially strong in the southeastern state of Andhar Pradesh, where Visakaphatnam is located.”

  Images of Indian uniformed security forces, heavily armed, appeared, followed by corpses arranged in a row, their faces covered. All were dressed in ragged civilian clothes and spattered with blood. Automatic rifles were neatly arranged at the feet of each one.

  “The attacks began shortly after dark, when small groups of gunmen charged police stations and an army barracks near Visakhapatnam with rifle fire and grenades. The attacks were not pressed home, but lasted for several hours.”

  The scene briefly shifted to a map, showing the location of the two bases halfway up India’s east coast, then back to a dark scene with armed men running. Lit by searchlights, a high wall in the background was stained and marked by explosions, and the camera occasionally shook as the operator ran, with gunshots echoing nearby.

  “The real targets were revealed twenty minutes later, when the naval bases at Visakhapatnam and nearby Rambilli were each swarmed by as many as a hundred men. Visakhapatnam is the Indian Navy’s largest base on the east coast.

  “At both locations, terrorists outside launched distracting attacks while infiltrators, already inside the perimeter, used heavy weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades and satchel charges. At Visakhapatnam, they attacked the ammunition magazines, and managed to get through the perimeter defenses, but were stopped short of the ammunition bunkers.

  “Rambilli is a separate naval base located some twenty-five miles south of the main base, and is the home port for INS Arihant, the Indian Navy’s first indigenously produced submarine. At that base, Maoists overpowered the guards on the pier and planted explosive charges near the submarine’s stern and propeller. Video of the rebels at work was transmitted during the attack, and showed divers with snorkels near the back part of the submarine, then soon after pulled from the water.”

  Good-quality video matched the description, with men in diving gear working while others on the pier pointed spotlights down onto the water. Occasional shots could be heard in the distant background as the rebels shouted to each other. After the divers were clear, the camera view shifted to a more distant view of the submarine and the pier, followed by explosions and a spray of water.

  “Launched in 2009, Arihant underwent an extensive period of sea trials before being commissioned in the Indian Navy in 2013.

  “The Indian Navy has not released any photos of Arihant since the attack, although it claimed the damage was ‘limited to the after-part of the vessel.’ They also claim that over fifty Maoists were killed and an undisclosed number wounded or captured. Thirteen Indian security personnel were killed, and another twenty-three wounded.

  “In a related story, several nations, including Brazil, Germany, and Iran, have all submitted resolutions to the UN general assembly calling for an immediate cease-fire in the conflict to avoid further loss of life and disruption of trade.”

  5 September 2016

  1700 Local Time

  Maritime Staff Office

  Shibuyun District

  Tokyo, Japan

  There was no need for secrecy anymore, but it still felt strange to simply walk into the headquarters building. The guard at the main gate to the compound phoned ahead after seeing the professor’s identification.

  There were more guards now, armed with assault rifles, patrolling the grounds and clustered around the entrance to the main building. One checked his identity again, but after he nodded, two more by the main entrance opened the doors and snapped to attention.

  The building’s lobby was spacious, and decorated not only with the Japanese flag and the naval ensign with its familiar red-on-white sunburst, but with a new crest—for the Littoral Alliance. It showed a circular blue field with four stylized warships sailing in line abreast, trailing long white wakes. Each was in a different color, to symbolize the four nations, and the group was turning in formation to face north.

  He had only a few seconds to study it before he noticed a square-faced commander standing near the entrance. He came up and bowed deeply. “Welcome, Professor Komamura. I am Commander Sato. The admiral is waiting for you upstairs.”

  Admiral Kubo was waiting alone in his office. He motioned Komamura to a chair, but did not offer tea, and barely let the professor sit before
saying, “I wanted to tell you before we went to the brief. It’s official. The Taiwanese will declare neutrality at noon.” He said it as flatly as possible, but his expression made it clear he considered it bad news. When Komamura didn’t reply immediately, he added, “It may be for the best.”

  Finally, the professor said, “It leaves a large gap in our campaign to encircle China.”

  “You sound like a military man,” Kubo remarked. “But as a military man, even I can appreciate the political risks if Taiwan joined the alliance. It could push China over the edge, and force them to act immediately.”

  Komamura nodded. “It was the smart move for Taiwan. If we prevail, she can join later. And if we don’t, America still guarantees her security, at least in the near term. For the long term…” The professor shrugged.

  “Has the working group drafted a response to the UN?” Komamura sounded worried. “If we stop the campaign before enough damage has been done, this will have all been a waste.”

  The admiral shook his head. “There will be no ‘official’ response. We have friends who will delay the motion for as long as possible, and even if it passes, the alliance will simply ignore it. But it makes your trip all the more important,” Kubo observed. “We need to end this conflict quickly. If we can get Indonesia, Malaysia, or Singapore to join us, our grip on Chinese seaborne trade will be nearly total.” Kubo smiled broadly at the thought.

  “It will help politically, of course. What matters is the oil,” Komamura insisted.