Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 246 Underwater Trap
"Send a signal and ask about the status of the flagship." Colonel Kirish ordered.He had a feeling that something was going wrong, maybe the Villant would lose power within the attack radius of the Pakistan Air Force.As early as two months ago, when he shot at the Chinese bulk carrier, he had a premonition that this war would cost the navy a huge price, but he did not expect that it would be an aircraft carrier.The Virant is currently the only aircraft carrier capable of combat in India; the Vikran Mathia is currently hiding in the Bay of Bengal for training, and the newly-built Vikrant is no longer in service due to enemy attacks. To a certain extent, this old aircraft carrier has become a symbol of the navy in western India; therefore, this flagship must be kept anyway.

"Colonel, there is no radio contact and no response. There seems to be some problem with their communication."

"Closer to the flagship, immediately carry out satellite communication, I must notify the headquarters, and immediately send an air force plane to rescue."

Let the Air Force plane come to rescue is something that the Navy is reluctant to see, but there is no other way now.

There was chaos on the Weilante aircraft carrier. The fire caused by the crash of the Sea Harrier quickly spread to the bridge and burned out the communication antenna; the worst case is that there are still 5 Sea Harriers left in the air and do not know what to do Except for the sea harrier that took off the most and still had enough fuel to barely fly to the coast of Gujarat, the other four had only about 4 minutes of airborne time left.

Colonel Zayala was the only one left in the command module (the rest of the officers went to direct the firefighting); he gradually came to his senses and realized that he had stopped in a dangerous area, which was only 400 nautical miles away from Karachi and was still under lightning In any case, it must move a little further north.He had already experienced the bravery of enemy pilots, and if they attacked with double ammunition and one-way fuel, the carrier would be in trouble.

"Resume prime momentum immediately, we must get out of here immediately."

"But Colonel, Captain Gould is still in the sky."

"We can only let them parachute, and maybe leave a frigate to salvage the pilot."

Even in June 1982, when she was besieged by a large number of Mirage 6 and Skyhawk fighter jets in the northeast of the Falkland Islands, she had never been in such a panic.

The re-acceleration of the Villant once again attracted the attention of the 411 sneaking in the deep sea.In fact, Marin has been worried that the aircraft carrier will sink before his attack. He believes that his naval career may never have such an opportunity again.

"Look, I guessed right, she's alive again."

"You don't seem too disappointed?" Sun Xiangdong sneered.

"Of course, the enemy is panicking, to our advantage."

"Did you notice that Derry class? She is very close now. It may cause some interference in target identification. I mean, the acoustic homing torpedo may be attracted by the carrier, after all, the seeker has It has its own set of optimization order, not our final decision."

"So I give you the final blow. This destroyer is a confidant, and he must be hit."

"I can only do my best."

Marin raised his wrist and looked at his watch: "It's almost there, the two cars stop. The whole boat is ready for battle."

The deceleration was immediately felt in the command module, and finally the submarine gradually came to a standstill.

Now, No. 411 is hidden deep in the water, with the bow pointing due east, and the position of the Indian fleet is about 10 o'clock. Just like the era of direct torpedoes, she must wait patiently for the prey to pass directly ahead.

"Dive to 90 meters, avoid the underwater sound channel." He added an order.

Before, he has been using the water depth channel to monitor the enemy's movements, but when the enemy gets too close, he must also be careful that the passive equipment on the enemy ship may hear the sound of the No. 411 cooling pump through the water acoustic channel. After all, the passive sonar on the ship The size is larger, and nuclear submarines cannot shut down the main engine and the reactor at any time like conventional submarines.

"The vibration value of the floating raft is still a bit high. Lower the control rod, reduce the sound of the cooling pump, and shut down the fresh water equipment."

"Also, control the depth of the towed sonar and try to keep it above the channel."

Sun Xiangdong walked to the back of the weapon console and sat down. He is an expert in operating wire-guided torpedoes on this boat. Of course, he has zero actual combat experience.The problem now is that a torpedo must hit the destroyer. For the safe withdrawal of No. 0, the destroyer is a potential threat.However, if Sun Xiangdong is allowed to deal with the destroyer freely, the plan of manipulating the remaining torpedoes to directly hit the keel of the Villant will not be implemented. The fire control system of this submarine was not designed to attack the entire fleet at the same time.

"Old Su, I will leave the analysis of the movement of the enemy fleet to you," Marin said to the political commissar beside him, "Check the measurement data of the electronic system every 2 minutes. If there is any discrepancy, your calculation shall prevail."

"Understood." Su Changjin turned around and began to manually calculate the relative trajectory of the enemy ship. Since the captain trusted him so much, he couldn't let the captain down.

"Open the caps of torpedo tubes 1, 2, 3, and 4."

Everyone in the command module knew that fighting was inevitable.

"The No. 1 torpedo has a set speed of 25 knots, passive acoustic homing mode, and the target marks the destroyer A1."

As soon as Marin's order was issued, Sun Xiangdong quickly completed the settings on the console. This will be the first torpedo to be launched. The speed is set relatively low because he is worried that the bubble state caused by the high speed will affect the passive sonar. The ability to catch a target.

"For the rest of the torpedoes, set them to launch directly, and you will make terminal corrections, with a speed of 45 knots."

"The torpedo is ready and ready to launch at any time."

The command module became deadly silent, except for the occasional light-emitting diodes on the console, there was no movement.

Marin has been standing blankly behind the periscope, holding the handle with both hands, he is the only person standing in the command cabin; although the periscope is useless at 90 meters underwater, this central position is his real post.His eyes fixed on the electronic chart, watching the trajectory of the enemy ship slowly move forward.The unruly destroyer kept changing its course, while the Verrant's course was basically unchanged and there were no rules.Marin was worried that the Derry-class ship ran to the port side of the Villant, and the torpedo would probably miss her; that would definitely become a hidden danger.

Inevitably, a series of shutdown and noise reduction measures reduced the core temperature and entered the "critical safety zone". This is a small hidden danger for the urgently needed increase in the steam pressure in the circuit after the attack; When he reached the speed he needed, Marin didn't know what to do.And this sea area is on the extension of the continental shelf, the depth is relatively large, but it is relatively flat, which is not conducive to the hiding of submarines.Once the enemy cuts off the retreat, the active sonar on the ship and the Sea King helicopter can slowly search the entire sea area, which is undoubtedly a very passive situation.

"Raise the control rods, and I will increase the core temperature. Maintain the pressure in the circuit." Marin broke the silence and said that there were only 10 minutes left before the enemy entered the attack range.

The political commissar lying next to the chart table turned around: "Old Ma, if you do this, the noise of the main cooling pump will increase exponentially."

"Don't worry, I know what to do."

With this command issued, the chain reaction in the reactor began to proliferate, and then the temperature of the core began to increase, and the pressure of the coolant and moderator in the circuit also began to increase.

25 nautical miles away, the sonar monitoring personnel of the Bombay have not been bothered by the external chaos. They have been carefully identifying the surrounding sounds, and finally began to make some strange discoveries.The professional sergeant in the sonar department found something strange, tore off the voiceprint printing paper, and went straight to the captain's room.

Kirish had been keeping an eye on the aircraft carrier a mile away, watching her gradually bring the fire under control, and he took the paper absently.

"Colonel, there are suspicious sounds from the starboard position."

"The flagship has been exploding, could it be her movement?"

"No, the sound source is underwater, and it's quite deep." The sergeant said confidently.

"If it's their submarine, it's impossible to hide it under our noses for so long..." Kirish frowned.

"Colonel, I don't think it's an ordinary submarine propulsion system, it's more like a cooling pump."

"Could it be a Stirling engine?"

"It should be different, I think, much like a nuclear submarine."

"What do you think? How sure are you?"

"Nine percent."

"If I were you, I wouldn't make such hasty judgments. Can the location be determined?"

"Not yet. But the depth is about 100 meters."

The colonel found that this is indeed the depth at which a nuclear submarine likes to stay. If it is a conventional submarine, it will hide a little shallower.

"Could it be an American nuclear submarine? They like to sneak around on the edge of war."

"So I request an active sonar survey."

Kirish was a little hesitant. Launching active sonar pulses could easily attract nearby submarines, but the whereabouts of the fleet should have been exposed long ago.

"No, launching an active sonar ping requires the command of the fleet commander. Now... the communication is not smooth."

"Alternatively, we can slow down and listen carefully. At the same time, take off the anti-submarine helicopter and float the sonar in the southwest direction." The sergeant made a new suggestion.

"Approval is required to slow down, however the helicopter must now execute a rescue plan and cannot fly southwest."

In desperation, Kirish made a compromise. The Sea Harrier pilot in the sky was about to abandon the plane and parachute, and the helicopter had to save the pilot who fell into the water.

Captain Goult in the air watched the helicopters on each ship take off one after another, and the warning sound of running out of fuel in the cabin kept making noises; he slowly reduced the speed to 90 knots, and put his hand on the ejection lever.

"Brothers, we can only go this far." After speaking, he pulled down the lever, and the canopy was thrown off.Then he heard a pop in his own neck, and the massive overload pushed him out of the plane.

(End of this chapter)