Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 99 Undersea Chase

"Left rudder 40, speed increased to 8 knots. Depth remains the same."

A big turn caused the towed sonar at the tail of the "Chakra" to arc away. The colonel hoped that this would lead to new discoveries, and also hoped that the other ranging sonars on the submarine would play some role.

"It is roughly certain that the distance is unknown in our direction at 2 o'clock. But the sound is getting louder."

"Hold on, don't worry too much, she will slowly approach us by herself, this is the only way for her to escape into the Indian Ocean." Yakov said, "How about the torpedo cabin?"

"Torpedoes 1 to 4 are ready for launch," the torpedo cabin responded.

There are many torpedo tubes on this attack nuclear submarine, but based on the fear of Russian torpedoes using hydrogen peroxide as fuel, the Indian Navy has formulated a series of conservative usage regulations to ensure safety, including filling all torpedo tubes at different times to avoid There was chaos in the torpedo compartment (the Kursk was due to a fuel leak due to a filling operation error that eventually led to the subsea explosion of the submarine).The mission of the "Chakra" was originally for surveillance, and it didn't even carry heavy 650mm torpedoes or long-range anti-submarine missiles, which made the submarine's anti-submarine capabilities a little discounted. For submarines, a 10000 mm torpedo is enough.In addition, there are 533 direct air bubble torpedoes outside the bow of this submarine that cannot be refilled in a fan shape, and the colonel is not ready to use them, he thinks it is unnecessary.

"Captain, I hope to issue an order to prohibit unnecessary conversations between the crew. Now is the period of combat, and I hope to reduce unnecessary noise." Yakov turned to the Indian captain and said.Commander Dihener immediately turned around and issued an order.

At this moment, Sergey was desperately trying to identify the characteristics of the other party's voice, but an amazing scene happened, and he immediately heard a second sound source.He identified for a while, it was undoubtedly the second nuclear submarine passing by the bow of the Chakra, and the characteristics of this sound were far more familiar to the sergeant than the first one, judging from the sound of the steam turbine running, it was undoubtedly a nuclear submarine US nuclear attack submarine.It seems that in the not-too-distant sea area, a not-so-intense submarine chase is taking place. Two submarines are passing through the area about 2 nautical miles ahead. He turned his head and looked at Colonel Yakov with frightened eyes.

"I found it again. It seems to be a sea wolf or Los Angeles." For some reason, the sergeant said in Russian, which made the other Indian officers in the command cabin unable to understand.

"Okay Sereshka, don't worry, that's great." The colonel steadied him in Russian and came over to put on his earphones.

"you sure?"

"I'm sure, at least the latter one must be an American submarine, I'm familiar with the distinctive sound of their steam turbines and loops."

The other Indians in the command cabin could not understand these Russian conversations, but the electronic system has shown that there are 2 moving sound sources, the direction is roughly in front of the bow of the boat, and the distance is still unknown.

"Dear Mikhail, you must be mistaken, this is another Chinese submarine." The colonel said.

"But... I can't be mistaken..."

Sergey was about to continue explaining something, when he found Yakov's big hand pressed heavily on his shoulder, which seemed to hint.It seemed that the colonel was worried that the bewildered Dihener would give up the attack because of this new discovery.But whether the colonel was right to do so, he didn't know, so he could only respond according to his intuition.

"Yeah, another sub, I think... Chinese. Speeding up and passing ahead of us."

Dichner was very dissatisfied with his Russian advisers communicating privately in words he could not understand. Now is the moment when the fire is imminent, how can he throw himself aside?
"Colonel, what's the matter?"

"I think there are some mistakes in our intelligence. There is more than one Chinese nuclear submarine here, and maybe a missile nuclear submarine. A team of two submarines." Yakov said without changing his face. His wish has always been It is to use their expertise at the bottom of the sea and fight a decent opponent.This order issued by the Indian government allowed him to get what he wanted, and it would not even cause Russia any diplomatic troubles.

"How is this possible?" Dihena turned pale with shock. He never thought that such a thing would happen. Submarines actually formed a formation like warships or planes on the bottom of the sea?According to the command of the headquarters, he should immediately open fire to destroy the enemy submarines discovered above, but the headquarters did not say that there would be two enemy submarines, and now he felt uncertain.However, what he was worried about was only the operational risk, and he did not consider the political risk at all.

"We have to shoot them all at the same time? I always feel like I should contact the headquarters first to make sure everything is safe."

"Mr. Captain, we are now in an absolutely superior position. They don't even know our existence. If we hesitate, we will be exposed sooner or later. I don't think the enemy will waste time thinking about firing."

Yakov blocked Dihena's idea of ​​floating communication. If radio contact is made now, concealment and attack position will be sacrificed. According to the colonel's understanding of the Indian Navy's bureaucratic system, the next order may arrive in a few hours. , and will most likely veto the attack.

"I always feel that something is wrong, why there is one more ship suddenly?" said the captain.

"The situation on the battlefield is always changing. The uniqueness of submarines is that we fight independently and don't have to ask our superiors at any time." Yakov continued to fan the flames, hoping that the Indian captain would understand the uniqueness of submarine warfare.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course, kill at least one."

In boat No. 411, the acceleration requested by Marin is in progress.

Now the speed of No. 411 has increased to 16 knots.Marin wants to maintain this medium speed to detect the opponent's reaction. If the speed is too fast, the noise of the No. 411 blade will increase a lot, which will seriously affect the passive sonar's ability to capture sound.If the speed is too slow, the technical advantage of the opponent can ensure that he can increase the speed quietly, and he may not be able to catch it himself.Now I have to give that guy a little bit of a hard time, so that he can get a headache too.Marin has been trying to figure out the opponent's mentality. The American captain will definitely scratch his head as to whether his submarine has been exposed, and the possibility of choosing to give up tracking is not small.He predicts that even if the opponent chooses to continue tracking, he will not speed up immediately. Maybe he will have a process of recovering the unmanned submersible. After about 20 minutes, he will speed up to catch up; if he hesitates and does not speed up, then I can take the opportunity to increase the distance, and completely get rid of this American submarine in the next sudden deceleration and drifting process.

The time was slightly shorter than Marin expected. After 5 minutes, the towing sonar found the very slight sound from the opponent's pump propeller. The opponent's reaction time surprised Marin secretly. Maybe he cut off the AUV?Or can it recycle that thing during acceleration?

"The course is confirmed, and it is indeed at the 5 o'clock position," said the deputy captain Sun Xiangdong.

"He still thinks he hasn't been discovered?" said the political commissar.

"It seems to be. He thought that this position could hide in the blind spot of our bow sonar, but it really surprised me. The noise of this submarine after increasing its speed is only a little higher than the background noise of the ocean. I think their confidence It also makes sense."

"Should I turn a corner and complete the distance measurement?" the political commissar suggested.

"I agree, but the electronic system is not reliable enough, Sun Xiangdong, you can manually complete the track calculation."

Then Marin gave the order to turn. He deliberately did not use the S-shaped route, which would make his intention of using sonar to detect the opponent too obvious. Since the old guy thinks that 411 is still in the dark, there is no need to alarm him for the time being. Yes, using an ordinary turn can also improve the effect of the sonar. After collecting the sound information of the latest American nuclear submarine, we can find a way to get rid of it in a larger area in deep water.Although the feeling of being tightly bitten at the moment makes Marin uncomfortable, it is always valuable to fully grasp the technical gap between No. 411 and its opponents. This value may be greater than simply reconnaissance of the Indian Navy.

The track calculation of Marin and other non-commissioned officers is completed in about a few minutes. During this period, the electronic system also calculated the distance of the American submarine. Because of its low sound, the distance obtained by the electronic ranging system is always too large. , and Sun Xiangdong's calculations show that its distance is only 15 nautical miles at most, which means that No. 411 is likely to be within his torpedo attack range.

"Let me remind you, the sonar department should not focus on one place. You must also pay attention to other directions, and maybe threats will appear in other directions." Marin's words made everyone in the command cabin a little confused, and it sounded like his Suspicion has reached a higher level, and he is still worried about other directions when facing a gnawing Virginia.

"Our current speed is too high, the noise is not small, and it is not surprising to be spotted by submarines in the farther surrounding area, so we should be more careful." He further explained, and what he said was quite reasonable.However, other people in the command module can't accept this view for the time being, and they don't believe that there will be more complicated situations.

"Two rounds of air curtain bombs at the tail of the boat are ready."

"Ready!"

Political commissar Su Changjin thought that Marin wanted to rely on the two air curtain bombs to get rid of the American submarine, which was obviously unrealistic. The living people on the submarine were not as easy to deceive as torpedoes.

"Are you worried about them launching torpedoes at us?" asked the commissar.

"Actually, I'm not too worried that they will open fire, I'm just worried that it won't be that easy to get out of the Bay of Bengal and there could be a rather chaotic situation."

"I also reminded you and Sun Xiangdong before that there will always be some unexpected troubles when increasing the speed."

"Actually, the chaotic situation may not necessarily be a trouble, and it may be a good thing."

"On the port side... there is a new sound, it seems to be the sound of the torpedo tube opening the cover."

A voice echoed in the command pod.A listener suddenly discovered a new threat on the port side, and it seemed that the captain's hypothesis about the chaos was immediately confirmed.

(End of this chapter)