Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 211 Shallow Sea Chase
The logo that allowed the launch of the Eagle Strike missile began to jump. The colonel lowered his head and made a little manipulation. He selected the attack mode as: conventional.This mode is the standard mode used to deal with large ships that lack air defense capabilities. The missile will not do some maneuvering and evasive actions at the end that are easy to miss the target. If the enemy does not have a decent counterattack capability, the double launch of the Eagle Strike missile The hit rate is probably over [-]%. Of course, there are some short-range anti-aircraft weapons on the big ship, so he can't control it.

After doing all this, the colonel did not hesitate to pull the trigger, and the two missiles fell from the pylons, and then ignited on the water and flew to the target.At this time, the enemy's MR2 radar on the side and rear finally intercepted the fighter jet, but the warship had already been thrown [-] nautical miles away, and the range for this kind of missile was already barely enough.The colonel turned calmly and dropped the fuel tank under the belly of the aircraft, and headed back to the Mesur airport.

The radar on the Galaxiwa dock landing ship has never found the missile approaching from behind.This kind of missile flies close to the sea and skims the sea, so it is not easy to be found.However, Colonel Hanaled has been standing in the cab to observe the direction behind the side with a telescope. After he heard the warning sent by the frigate through the radio, he has been staring at the northwest direction, because he knows that there are countless air defense loopholes in the fleet. The biggest one; he was probably the first person on the warship to see the missile approaching on the sea surface. The orange tail flame of this Chinese missile is a bit big. From a distance, it looks like a missile slowly approaching on the sea level. fireflies.

The colonel yelled at the top of his lungs, and the air defense sirens sounded.

With a chaff/infrared jammer on each side and a Phalanx close-in defense at the bow and stern of the ship, perhaps the captain can still look forward to a last-ditch effort.In particular, the second Phalanx system, which is arranged behind the mainmast, almost occupies the highest point of the entire ship, with a field of fire greater than 300 degrees.

Sure enough, this Phalanx search radar became the first system to track the missile on the whole ship, and the 6-tube fast gun began to move rapidly towards the missile, and it still needed to adjust the shooting direction and depression angle; The missile approaching from the clock direction got into the huge crane boom and chimney structure at the starboard rear of the ship at a tricky angle, and the Vulcan fast gun temporarily lost its firing range.It turned a few more degrees step by step, waiting for the missile to emerge from the other side; at this time, the giant ship began to turn following the command of the captain's full left rudder. This counterproductive action caused the search radar of the MK5 system to be completely lost. Target.Hanarid's order to evade is not unreasonable. Logically, he would rather hit the stern of the ship than let the missile hit the midship. Of course, doing so can also keep the missile away from the forecastle cockpit. For a large ship with the first 15 tons, this is a conservative method of the next best thing.However, behind this brief and chaotic decision-making, it is up to fate to gain or lose.

The air raid siren on the ship kept screaming, but the radar alarm in the bridge disappeared, indicating that the radar had lost its target.After a long few seconds, nothing happened, and people near the colonel started looking at each other, as if rejoicing that it was a false alarm, that maybe the missile fell into the sea, but it missed anyway.Colonel Hanaled was more reserved than the average crew, but deep down in his heart, he also thought he had escaped; just as he was about to issue a new steering order, a huge explosion came from behind.The colonel ran out of the bridge and heard a second explosion, which was the second missile hitting the rear of the giant ship.He saw the huge crane and some of the crew fall into the sea amidst the flames.

"Colonel, we were hit, the ship tilted 5 degrees." The second officer shouted, it seemed to be just nonsense, the captain could feel the tilt angle increasing under his feet, which meant that there was sea water in a certain cabin on one side. Influx.

"Don't stay here and go to the back to check the damage." The colonel said calmly to his deputy.Several crew members froze for a moment, then went out holding the hatch door.

"The telegraph room quickly sent a report to the headquarters. We were hit. There will definitely be a second attack. Let the planes from the air force base along the coast to protect us."

As the sun went down, fighter jets taking off from various airports began to circle uninterruptedly over Kempard Bay.The huge Galaxiwa was still floating on the water, and the smoke at the tail had gradually dissipated. Under the tugboat, her speed was restored to 5 knots. Moving forward in the direction of Vathier, the ship tilted about 10 degrees to the left, and the rear compartment was seriously flooded.However, the further attack that the crew was worried about has yet to come. It seems that the Pakistanis do not have the ability to continue to hunt and kill.

The intelligence forces along the coast of Karachi immediately picked up the messages sent along the coast of India. These urgent messages sent to the Southern Command of the Indian Navy were sloppily encrypted, and the intelligence personnel quickly learned the results of the attack from them: "The main engine of the Galaxiva stopped , The fire has been extinguished after 4 hours, and the loss of personnel is not large."

Obviously, the possibility of the Indians using this large dock-type transport ship to carry air-cushion landing craft on the coast of Karachi for a quick landing battle has been ruled out.Of course, for Major General Islam, if it can be completely sunk, it will naturally be a more perfect ending, but at this time he can no longer send planes.

70 kilometers northwest of Mumbai Port.The submarine "Hamza" of the Pakistan Navy is clinging to the bottom of the sea and sailing slowly at a speed of 4 knots. This is already the highest submerged speed that this AIP submarine can reach without a snorkel. Fortunately, his goal—— The speed of Laxiwa is only one knot faster than him. From the chart, this submarine has a chance to occupy a better position according to the established route, and then fires 2 Exocet missiles to send the big ship to the bottom of the sea.

For two days, the captain Mohammad Ratif has been waiting for this big fish to come into sight. Just 5 hours ago, he almost succeeded, but his latent plan was interfered by two approaching Indian frigates. After a while, he had to sneak back a certain distance before being hit by the torpedo.He thought that he had lost his chance, and wanted to try his luck outside the port of Mumbai, maybe he could meet an Indian transport ship leaving the port.

A few days ago, Pakistan had secretly decided to launch limited submarine warfare against India. As long as the submarine raises the periscope to confirm that the ship is of Indian flag, even civilian ships can attack, but how dangerous it is to raise the periscope on the sea surface, and mistakenly hit other countries’ ships Ships are obviously subject to military law, so so far no Pakistani submarine captain has dared to attack rashly.

Gradually, the disheartened Latif found that the Galasiva, which fell behind, became slower and slower, and never passed him to take the lead. He didn't know what happened on the sea, but his intuition told He, the big ship must have been attacked but not sunk.

The sonar department on the Hamza can hear that two Indian frigates are still shuttling around the source of the sound, and there is also a frigate in the direction of Mumbai driving there with a rumbling main engine. It seems that there is some urgent task. But that ship is still far away.From these clues, Major Latif roughly guessed that it was almost the same.He decisively turned the direction of the submarine and sailed towards the enemy capital ship in the northeast direction again.

For this Agesta 90B submarine, long-distance passive sonar ranging is an unsolvable problem. Its sonar size is too small, obviously not enough to collect enough information.And Kempa Bay is also the outlet of the Narmada River into the Arabian Sea. It is always difficult for submarines to measure the distance and speed of the target near the mouth of the freshwater river.However, the Exocet missiles on the submarine do not rely on accurate range measurement like torpedoes. Even if the enemy ship is stranded in the trumpet-shaped estuary of Kempa Bay, it will soon be within the attack range of the Exocet missiles. Possibly run to land.

"We can't get too close...but we can't get too far away either, quickly launch 2 flying fish, and then retreat secretly."

"Maybe we will reveal the location in advance. Those frigates have anti-submarine helicopters and anti-submarine aircraft at coastal airports." The deputy captain reminded.It was too close to the coast, and he had no choice but to remind the commander of this possibility, knowing that the performance of this type of submarine was not so outstanding in all aspects.

"I think I should take a risk. Do you know how difficult it is to encounter such a good thing?" Latif asked back.He has served on submarines for more than a decade and knows that it is difficult to attack surface ships with such slow underwater ships.Surface ships always take the initiative in confrontation, not only surface ships only have active sonar and helicopters, speed and endurance are also advantages that underwater submarines can never overcome; but today the situation is different, the diesel auxiliary engine of that big ship is Roaring hard, but her speed is still a pitiful 5 knots, she is dead.It would be a pity if she was lucky enough to escape back to the harbor and get repaired in time.The densitonic layer formed in the fresh water estuary did make the nearby underwater acoustic channel confused, but the chaotic underwater acoustic environment is also conducive to covering the submarine itself, which is also a slight advantage that the major considered.

"Okay, so it's decided. The ballast tank is filled with water, and we float up to the depth of the periscope. Then release the towed sonar line array sonar." The captain said resolutely.Seeing that the captain has made up his mind, and there is no longer any objection in the crowded command cabin, the sailors follow the natural way, risks and opportunities always appear together.

The depth of the submarine changed slowly, and the sonar interception department quickly collected the sound information. However, ranging was still difficult. We only knew that there were 070 enemy ships at the position from 073 to 3. Judging from the characteristics, 2 of them were frigates, and the other One is a large ship about to sink.The major figured that he could launch two Exocet missiles underwater at a very short interval, but these missiles might not fly towards the big ship, and the missiles might not have enough firepower.If you get closer, maybe you can launch 2 heavy torpedoes, that will be a real fatal blow.He quickly came to his senses and vetoed his second plan. He was not afraid of taking risks, but he was not crazy. Launching torpedoes under the nose of the frigate was obviously death.

"Very well, the torpedo bay is ready for missile launch immediately, and we'll give them a hard time in 10 minutes."

After Latif finished speaking, the command cabin fell into dead silence, and the turbid air seemed to freeze. He quickly scanned the faces of the bearded comrades around him, but he didn't see any expressions of fear. This is what he wanted. Pre-war atmosphere.

(End of this chapter)