Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 90 Stereoscopic Search
"What do you mean?"

"A kind of agreed password, which is very concise, but it cannot be deciphered; it probably means something as simple as 'return' or 'attack'." The translator said.

"Satpura" is the name buried in a mountain in Madhya Pradesh, India. Of course, it is also the name of a ship of the Indian Navy, but logically, it is impossible for Chennai's submarine command to use long waves to send a message to a frigate. News, so here is nothing more than an agreed meaning, not a call sign. 1470 is the real call sign, which should be to call a submarine.

"What do you think 1470 means?"

"It should be a submarine that has been underwater."

"Oh? Tell me what you think?"

"The radio stations in Chennai have been keeping silent these days, and they are quite restrained. It can be considered that they are afraid of the US fleet monitoring, so they command ordinary submarines to use other methods." The translator said, which seemed to make sense. "So they must be in a hurry. They need to call a submarine lurking in the far sea, so they use the long wave to send the message. It is not difficult to guess that the main reason is that this submarine has been staying in the sea, so other communication cannot be used. I guess Probably a nuclear submarine as India has not recently gotten an AIP type Squid that can stay underwater for long periods of time.”

Marin nodded in agreement.The translator turned and went back.The captain walked a few times in the aisle outside the command cabin. He didn't know why India wanted to mobilize a nuclear submarine. Could it be related to his No. 411?Or have you exposed yourself?She had to think about the worst. If the submarine commander was not suspicious enough, he would not live long. This was taught to her by the commander of No. 409, her former superior.

Judging from the analysis of very limited clues, it is likely that the one recruited is a Shark II-class attack nuclear submarine that cannot be underestimated. Of course, it may also be India's self-made "Enemy Raider". If that is the case, the enemy's situation will be smaller. But from the perspective of predicting the enemy, we must maneuver now, no matter which direction we go, we must leave here first.

"Immediately correct the course to 105, and reduce the speed to 6 knots." Marin walked into the command cabin and immediately issued a transfer order.

"The ballast water tank was filled with water, and dived forward at 15 degrees to 75 degrees, trying to stick to the bottom of the sea."

He walked to the charts. The depth of the sea in this area is not enough, and the seabed is relatively flat, and there is no shielding area that can be used in an emergency. Of course, these charts may not be accurate. After all, it is unlikely that Chinese survey ships will sail to India's economic waters.The current plan is to hide in the depths of the Bay of Bengal as soon as possible, and it will be more certain to avoid shore-based helicopters or underwater threats.

A big problem for submarines underwater is that many things must be guessed. Passive sonar systems can collect very limited information. It is very reckless to raise the periscope or turn on the active sonar. Even if the enemy is found, it is often I can't figure out the position and distance, so the underwater training will make the submarine chief officer very suspicious.

An hour has passed, and No. 411 has been driving quietly on the seabed, with very little noise. From the data sent back from the sensor installed on the floating raft's vibration reduction system, it can be known that the captain has not issued a wartime order not to talk. Maybe there are only a few porpoises nearby that like to go out of the sea. Of course, if they are dolphins, they will make very noisy calls when driving fish schools. 411's passive sonar has not found such movements.

"Old horse, is there any movement, do you want to use the towed line array sonar?" The political commissar who just walked over asked.

"No, the water here is shallow. If the sonar is caught by the fishing net of the fishing boat, it will be troublesome. Maybe nothing will happen." Marin explained the reason for not using the towed line array sonar.

The sub sailed silently eastward without further movement or interception of any long-wave signals.It seems that everything has calmed down, and everything is just a false alarm?Thinking of this, Marin was about to go back and rest for a while.

"Report to the captain, new discovery," the sonar officer reported, and the bow sonar seemed to have caught a signal.

"What's the situation, 015 bearing, relatively long distance, like 2 frigates."

"Their course?"

"Not sure yet, it is likely to be heading towards us?"

"Frigate?"

"The main engine sounds like a medium-power diesel engine, or it may be a small medium-sized ship with a dense formation, but the speed and distance cannot be determined yet. Maybe 80 nautical miles away."

Marin glanced at the electronic chart, and there was no major change. The newly appeared suspicious target did not appear on the chart because the distance was not determined.But he found that several fishing boats nearby were turning, and he didn't know why?If there are a few frigates approaching from the north, it is not a serious matter, because there are still a few hours to avoid it, and he is afraid that there will be helicopters on his head at this time.

"What happened to those fishing boats?"

"I don't know. It started to turn 5 minutes ago. It seems that the route should be back to the port near Chennai." The shift leader said.

"Turn together?"

"Well, they turned around at the same time."

"When did they return to Hong Kong yesterday?"

"About 8 o'clock in the evening." The political commissar replied and looked at his watch. It was only 2 o'clock in the afternoon.

"Perhaps there is heavy rain on the sea," said the monitor, and his guess seemed reasonable.

"But if there is a heavy rain today, why go out to sea? You just cast your net and you are in a hurry to go back?"

Seven or eight people in the command cabin couldn't answer the captain's strange question, maybe their captain really thought too much.

"Attention, turn to 180, the depth remains the same. Forward three, the engine speed increases, let's leave here quickly." Marin revised the previous order, and issued a new rudder order and car bell order. His attitude infected the command cabin Everyone else was inexplicably nervous.

"Do you think we've been exposed?" Political Commissar Su Chang came over again and asked in a low voice. He deliberately lowered his voice so that no one else could hear his words.

"I don't know, there are no more signs at present, but in our business, information occlusion is the norm, and there is no harm in being careful." Marin replied.

"Maybe it's a normal mobilization. They can't have coastal patrol boats. And if they found us, why didn't they use other more effective anti-submarine measures?" the political commissar continued to ask.

"It can't be said that, and it doesn't necessarily mean that there are a few quiet submarines nearby. What we can detect now may not be all."

"However, the cafeteria is waiting for dinner?"

"Let them wait for four hours and delay until 1600. Let's wait until we reach the deep sea." Marin said.Now there are no anti-submarine ships sailing overhead, no Indian submarines are found nearby, and there is no movement of active sonar, but Marin just feels that something is wrong, and he can’t tell what’s wrong, but he thinks it’s best to have all Most of the people stay on the job, and it is no big deal to miss a meal.

On the sea east of Chennai, four Sea King helicopters are lined up in a rectangle, using the sonar of the hanging method for passive listening.At first, the sonar seemed to pick up some suspicious sounds, but then there were problems, and the noisy sounds from nearby fishing boats seriously interfered with the helicopter's search for underwater submarines.So after communication, the radio station at the port called the fishing boats to return.At first the fishing boats ignored the words of the port until the voice of the owner of the fishing company in Jigampuram appeared on the radio and he told the boats that if they did not return, they would not take all their fish. Finally, these motorized fishing boats collected their nets and returned to the voyage, but this action was delayed for a long time.The fuel of the helicopters staying on the sea was no longer enough to stay at sea, and the last 4 helicopters almost returned to Takulan's base for refueling along with the yelling fishing boats.

80 nautical miles to the north, inside the Indian nuclear submarine INS Arihant.

Colonel Manush, the commander, is issuing a series of new orders, strictly ordering the engineers to stick to their posts and increase the steam pressure in the circuit. He hopes that the steam turbines will reach at least 8% of the speed, but the steam pressure is obviously not enough now.

"Chief engineer, you must keep your people at their posts. This is a time of war, and it is a shameful act of cowardice to leave their posts." The captain said. He knew that some sergeants in the engine room were afraid that the valve would leak steam again. Dare to raise the pressure too fast.

"Captain, the brothers are working hard to increase the speed, but the pipelines of the secondary circuit are really worrying, and the temperature of the moderator pipeline and the gamma radiation value are too high. I am afraid that the pressure of the pipeline is too high." In the machine, the chief engineer complained carefully.

"Damn it, we're 10 nautical miles behind. If you let the enemy go, the Ministry of Defense will blame you and I will get out of the navy in advance. I can see the data here, all the circuits are normal, and only reached the design index Seventy-and-a-half, so you can speed it up."

Seeing that the head of the engineering department stopped talking, the captain continued to call other departments.

"Emancadi, what's the matter with the steam turbine, it's like driving a train. This is the first actual combat of the 'Arithra', don't screw me up, I want a quiet speed of 10 knots."

"I'll do my best, Captain."

"How about the torpedo bay?"

"Everything is complete, captain, torpedoes No. 1 and No. 4 can be launched with a little preparation."

"very good."

The Annihilator has increased its speed to an unprecedented high speed of 12 knots, struggling to catch up with the two old South Korean-made Sukanya-class patrol boats ahead.However, the captain is not in a hurry to overtake the two patrol ships. He knows that the anti-submarine capabilities of these patrol ships are very weak. They only have depth bombs and anti-submarine rockets, which will not take away the results of the battle. Now they have to rely on them to defeat the Chinese nuclear submarine in front of them. Forced to make a movement, and I just happened to be able to hide behind the two ships to hide the damn noise.Colonel Manush had been trained on an Akula-class nuclear submarine a long time ago and had some anti-submarine experience. He especially hoped that he could show his skills in this war.

"The captain has a telegram." Someone shouted (the Arihant has been navigating at the depth of the snorkel, mainly to receive the telegram at any time, of course, on the other hand, for the sake of safety.) Manoush took the telegram and looked at it, The Chinese submarine was fleeing to the deep sea area. This was the judgment reached after the helicopter search, because they searched the shallow sea area and found no clues.

(End of this chapter)