Seawolf End Game

by Cliff Happy

  Kristen was about to respond when, as if to add and exclamation point to their situation, they heard Chief Miller over the squawk box, “MIDAS alert! Mine bearing three-five-nine.”

  Brodie was issuing the order before he even managed to turn his head. “All stop! Right twenty degrees rudder! New course zero-three-five.”

  Kristen gripped the edge of the hatchway, expecting a loud explosion any second. They’d come through all of the submarine defenses so far unscathed, but the Iranian minefield was either larger than expected or one of the mines had drifted free of its moorings.

  Brodie turned back to her, holding a hand up to halt her so she didn’t leave the control room yet. She understood why. If she went to the torpedo room she would have to pass through multiple watertight hatches, and these needed to stay shut in the event they hit a mine and there was flooding. She watched him, his eyes now on the course indicator in front of the helmsman.

  His eyes showed the concern he felt. He hid it well, but she could see it now. A moment ago his face had been an impenetrable mask to her, as it usually was, but now she saw the tension coming to the surface. He was as worried as any of them. He waited a full three minutes as the Seawolf settled on her new course and began to coast away from the minefield ever so slowly, like a shadow in the depths.

  “Go,” he whispered.

  “Gone.” She raced forward to the torpedo room.

  Upon entering the cavernous space, she saw the two drones were in the process of being loaded. She delayed the loading long enough to check the drones over one last time. As she went over the checklist, she did her best to ignore the six other torpedo tubes, each loaded with warshot. The Seawolf was primed for action, and the men around her showed it. The tension was so thick it was oppressive. The men in the torpedo room had been standing by for six hours, their torpedoes and missiles loaded and aware that the Seawolf was tracking multiple threat targets, but they had no idea just how close the threat was.

  “How bad is it out there?” Chief Chester asked her.

  “Pretty damn bad,” she admitted. “Two Akulas and a Kilo are within eight thousand yards of us, plus there are several surface patrol craft pounding the Strait with active sonar.”

  “Shit.”

  The drones were loaded and sealed in the tubes. Kristen waited until they were ready to launch, just to make certain nothing went wrong with their deployment. No sooner were the tubes sealed and their crews reported them loaded, then orders came down to flood the tubes and open the outer doors. Kristen heard the water rushing into the tubes and then the clear metallic sound of the two outer doors opening. It sounded like someone pounding on an empty metal barrel with a sledgehammer, and although she knew it wasn’t quite as loud as she feared, she was conscious of just who might be listening.

  She waited as more orders came down to launch the two drones in succession. As each was activated, she heard the whirl of the motors from inside the tubes as the drones swam out of the submarine to begin their reconnaissance. Then, as she was leaving, she heard a torpedoman with a sound powered phone call out an order from the control room, “Load tubes five and six with MK48 ADCAP.”

  She rushed back aft as the torpedomen began moving more weapons toward the two empty tubes. Kristen had the feeling something was happening, and she had the desperate urge to get back into the sonar shack where she might be able to do some good. She reached the control room and saw on the closest tactical display that they were barely making headway away from the minefield. Brodie was standing in front of a tactical display with Graves beside him. She studied the display, seeing all of the contacts they’d found coming up into the Strait. They were now monitoring only two of them, one an Alvand class frigate about ten miles away, and the other was a new Kilo submarine moving near the surface about four miles away.

  “It’s dark topside,” Graves offered. “The idiot probably thinks it’s safe to recharge his batteries in the dark,” he said referring to the diesel electric Kilo submarine running on the surface.

  Brodie nodded thoughtfully and then saw Kristen. “Any problems with the drones?”

  “No, sir,” she replied as she shook her head. She wanted to ask what was going on but realized the one thing the men in the control certainly didn’t need was a spectator. “Both are away and should complete their search grid in seven hours.”

  Brodie scratched his chin thoughtfully and asked Graves, “What do you think, Jason?”

  Graves stared at the tactical display with a critical eye. “The Audacious is probably sitting quietly and monitoring the area. But the Akula is close by him and might cause both of us some trouble if someone starts it off.”

  Kristen could see what the XO was talking about. It was as if the Seawolf and the other five submarines were all gunfighters in a small room. Everyone had their hands near their weapons, and all were ready to start shooting. All it would take to start the fireworks was for someone to make a mistake, or for one of the unsuspecting submarines to accidentally come too close to an opponent.

  Brodie didn’t respond; instead, he checked his wristwatch. “We don’t want to be the cause of this shootout,” he concluded and then ordered, “Let’s go dark right here and hover. We can wait until the drones return and then commence our infiltration of the minefield.”

  Graves wiped the sweat from his brow and spoke to Kristen, “How’re you feeling?”

  “I’m okay, sir.” Kristen replied, a bit tired but well aware that everyone else in the room was equally so. She could hardly complain.

  “Do you think you’re up to getting back on a stack and seeing if you might reacquire the second Akula?” Graves asked.

  “Aye, sir,” she replied and headed back to sonar.

  Chief Miller had lit a cigarette and several other men were smoking as she entered. A thick, acrid cloud hung in the air, and she wrinkled up her nose as soon as she entered.

  “Smoking lamp’s out, boys,” Miller said as soon as he saw her, precluding her having to protest. He dropped his own butt to the deck and crushed it out with his boot. “Welcome back, Miss,” he offered.

  “Thanks, Senior Chief,” Kristen said as she entered. “Do you think we might leave the hatch open for a few minutes to get some fresh air in here?” she asked in a soft whisper, noticing several men look up from their stations at her.

  “Sure,” Miller replied. “Are you up for another spin on the analyzer?”

  “Just as long as I can breathe,” she replied as she made her way through the throng jammed into the small space.

  Seated at the spectrum analyzer was a 1st class petty officer with slightly graying hair. Miller leaned over and tapped the man’s shoulder to get his attention. The man looked up as Miller unceremoniously jerked a thumb at him, directing him out of the chair. “Give the lady a crack at it, Owens,” he ordered briskly.

  Kristen sat down and got right to work. The Alvand class frigate was still cruising back and forth across the Strait providing a visible deterrent to anyone who might want to force their way through the passage. But the Alvand was a ship built for a different time and would be totally outclassed if the shooting started. Kristen could also hear the Kilo class submarine running shallow on her diesel engines which sounded like an old bicycle with a bunch of cans dragging behind it. The Kilo was as good as any diesel electric submarine, but she too was old and noisy when not on her batteries. She wouldn’t cause the Seawolf any grief.

  Kristen tuned these two distractions out and resumed searching for the other sounds she knew were out there. The Seawolf was hovering in about three hundred feet of water and pointing back toward the Gulf of Oman, and Kristen hoped to use the Seawolf’s extremely powerful hydrophones built into the massive bow sonar array to help reacquire the other targets. She readjusted her system to her preferred settings, allowing more sounds through the computer filters so she could, for herself, discriminate the useful information from the clutter.

  She knew the general direction where the Audacious and
the second Akula had been operating and began moving her joystick to slowly and methodically search every bearing for any sound. But she’d barely started when off to her left she heard Greenberg on the broadband stack nearly shout, “Submerged contact! Bearing zero-three-eight. Sounds like a single propeller.”

  Kristen turned onto the new bearing and adjusted her controls as others began picking up the sounds.

  “Single screw. Definitely a sub,” Goodman offered.

  Kristen listened closely, but heard no plant sounds or rushing water indicating a cooling pump. She focused on the blade noise and looked up at Miller. “It’s another Kilo.”

  The others began working the contact while she resumed searching for other contacts, and Miller reported the second Kilo submarine, this one submerged, to the control room. The Kilo on its present course would pass dangerously close to the Seawolf, and Brodie increased speed slightly, maneuvering away silently. It was growing increasingly crowded in the narrow channel with too many submarines and not enough sea.

  It was just a matter of time before someone made a mistake.

  They’d just started moving to get clear of the approaching Kilo when Kristen, while sweeping the area to the front of the Seawolf, picked up a gentle rushing sound, as if water moving through a tube.

  “Submerged contact. Bearing three-five-eight. Possible cooling pumps. Probable nuclear submarine,” she reported and began refining her search.

  “Con, sonar. Submerged contact bearing three-five-eight, possible submerged nuclear submarine designate contact as Sierra Twelve,” Miller reported.

  Kristen recognized the sound; it was faint however, and she nearly lost it in a school of fish swimming through the Strait. “It’s the Audacious, Chief. She’s moving,” Kristen reported and began looking for the Akula in the vicinity of the British submarine.

  The Seawolf was still moving slowly, like a ghost cloaked in a deep fog on a dark night. She was invisible, her own plant noises so slight the chances of detection were nearly impossible. Kristen knew Brodie wanted to avoid a fight if possible and was trying to move them away from the Kilo as the unsuspecting Iranian submarine came too close for comfort. But Kristen felt like their painstaking approach and successful launch of the drones would be spoiled as it looked increasingly clear that the nest of Russian and Iranian submarines were awaking to the intruders in their midst.

  “Submerged contact,” Greenberg reported anxiously from the broadband stack, “bearing three-four-zero.”

  “Jesus,” Miller whispered echoing everyone else’s thoughts.

  When they’d initially approached the minefield, they’d detected multiple submarines, which had all been sitting quietly. But while the Seawolf had been facing the minefield and her baffles had been facing the other submarines, something had happened to start the entire group moving. Kristen could almost feel the numerous itchy trigger fingers around them.

  “Con, sonar. New sonar contact bearing three-four-zero. Probable submerged submarine. Designate contact as Sierra Fourteen.”

  Kristen moved onto the new contact, adjusting her glasses as she stared at the green waterfall before her and listened intently on the bearing. It took her a few seconds to hear it. “She’s the Akula,” Kristen said with a bit of excitement in her voice. “She’s picking up speed and has engaged her propeller. Her plant noise is picking up, too.”

  She was beginning to understand what may have occurred to start things moving.

  The Akula had been lying in wait and had probably not picked up the Audacious. But the Audacious had been forced to move as the Kilo came too close to her, just as the Kilo was now coming too close to the Seawolf. As the Audacious increased speed, the Akula heard the Brit and was now maneuvering to get another bearing on the British boat they might use to triangulate a firing solution.

  Information was now coming fast and furious. The computer took over monitoring the Alvand and the snorkeling Kilo, both of which were so loud they couldn’t have heard a freight train passing by them. Meanwhile, the Seawolf changed course in order to get its own second bearing on the Akula in the event they had to shoot. With the squawk box on, the sound from the control room was constant as the Seawolf moved closer and closer to firing her weapons. Kristen knew the situation was rapidly spinning out of control as the Akula increased speed slightly and changed course again, having managed to get a second bearing on the Audacious.

  “Aspect change on Akula Nine; contact has changed course,” she reported and continued to give bearing changes on the Akula until they had a more solid fix. Her words no longer had to be passed to the control room as they were now on a hot microphone to save time. “Akula Nine has increased speed to eight knots and is now at seven thousand yards; she’s turning toward the Audacious,” Kristen reported.

  She then heard Brodie’s voice. Calm and steady. She could almost envision him in the control room standing impassively. He’d tried to avoid a fight, but now it was upon him. “Make tubes three and four ready in all respects. Input the firing solution for the Akula into both weapons.”

  Kristen knew it was coming. She’d expected it hours earlier and had been prepared for it then. But now, after hours of patient stalking and sneaking, she’d allowed herself to believe they might be able to avoid what was now staring them in the face. Even as she was thinking this, she heard him continue to ready the Seawolf to unleash her fury on the multiple contacts all around them. Solutions for both Kilo submarines were loaded into weapons and more tubes were flooded.

  “Transients,” Kristen was about to call out as Martinez did. “Akula Nine is flooding her tubes.”

  The order had been anticipated. Everyone knew it was coming. It had been only a matter of time from the moment they’d received their orders to break through the Strait and find the Borei. But now as the order was issued, it came as a surprise.

  “Tube three, match bearings and shoot,” she heard Brodie’s voice over the speaker. “Stand by to commence high speed maneuvering. Prepare to launch a full spread. Ready Aselsan in tube seven.”

  Kristen heard the order but didn’t quite believe it until she detected the MK48 torpedo clearing the tubes. The torpedo’s screw turned slowly, just fast enough to swim out of the tube. Trailing behind the weapon was a slender guidance wire spooling out from the rear of the torpedo itself as it swam away from the Seawolf in preparation to commencing a high-speed run toward the Akula. The guidance wire allowed the tracking parties on the Seawolf to provide constant course changes and target updates to the torpedo as it moved toward its objective, allowing the torpedo to leave its own active sonar seeker head in the standby mode until it was nearly on top of its victim.

  Kristen listened intently, expecting the entire world around her to come alive as soon as the other submarines and vessels heard the torpedo’s high-speed screw. Once it started its run, the torpedo’s small screw would turn so fast it would cavitate, and the rushing of air bubbles created by the whirling propeller blade would be heard over a great distance. But the torpedo was still on a lower power setting and moving slowly, putting distance between itself and the Seawolf so when it did switch into high speed and was detected, the Akula didn’t immediately respond by shooting a torpedo of its own back down the bearing where the Seawolf had fired from.

  Kristen then heard an ominous sound. “Akula Nine is opening outer doors and preparing to fire,” she reported to the control room via the open microphone. Kristen listened, knowing the Akula was about to clear her tubes on the unsuspecting Audacious. But then she heard Brodie direct the tracking party guiding the MK48 to order the torpedo to begin its high-speed run immediately and not wait for it to get clear of the Seawolf.

  Kristen tensed anxiously. The moment the torpedo switched into high speed and began racing in at fifty plus knots, the Akula would hear the torpedo’s screw and realize it was under attack. The result would be, in all likelihood, the Akula forgetting all about the Audacious and turning on the Seawolf to deal with its antagonist. Brodie h
ad to realize this too, and she knew he was placing the Seawolf in grave danger to save the unsuspecting Audacious.

  Within two seconds of Brodie’s command, she heard the sudden rush of noise coming from the torpedo’s screw as it switched from a calm five knots to a blistering fifty-five knots. The sound was loud and distinct as the torpedo bore in on the Akula. There was no chance—absolutely none—that the Akula and all the other boats quietly listening wouldn’t hear the MK-48 ADCAP charging headlong through the water.

  The sound of orders coming over the open microphone in the control room now made it clear that Brodie had lost his patience. The Seawolf was unleashing her fury on opponents all around her. “Launch Tomahawk,” Brodie ordered followed immediately by, “Tube eight, match bearings and shoot.” Which was followed a second later by, “Tube four, match bearings and shoot.”

  Kristen lost all sonar signatures the moment the weapons started firing, especially the Tomahawk anti-ship missile variant which was expelled from the tube by high-pressure steam. She removed her headphones for a moment and looked up at the squawk box, hearing Brodie’s calm voice, “Load tube five with MK48 ADCAP. Standby on tube seven to fire Aselsan.”

  Kristen looked at Chief Miller, who was wiping his sweaty brow nervously. “Jesus Christ,” the aging chief petty officer murmured.

  Kristen turned her attention back to her display. She pulled her headphones back on just in time to hear the Tomahawk missile break the surface and its air breathing jet engine engage. It would cover the distance to the Iranian frigate in just a few seconds. The crew of the frigate would never even know it was coming.

  Then, as expected, the Akula and the Audacious increased speed. They’d heard the sudden expulsion of multiple weapons into the water around them, and they were taking evasive action.

  The fight was on.

  As Brodie had predicted, it was like a knife fight in a dark closet. There was no room to maneuver, and victory would come to the quick. Death to everyone else. The Akula and the Audacious, fleeing the torpedoes in the water, were now cavitating as they increased speed to flank. Kristen ignored them and reported the information she gleaned about the two other submarines.