Z1250Z15JUNE
FR: SACLPAC
TO: ALL TF74
1. EXECUTE SIMULATED AIR AND SEA WARFARE AGAINST FLT BLUE.
2. WELCOME OUR GUESTS PROPERLY. SACLPAC SENDS.
"That's it people, we're in business."
Harold Francis, the commanding officer of USS Winston Churchill, announced the official beginning of the naval maneuver exercise RIMPAC 2010. He had his entire crew manning battle station since four hours ago when their sonar detected some mechanical noise, but this message meant they were now given free rein over their offensive maneuvers.
"Captain, the Seahawk-23 is pursing possible contact from sonobuoy 21 and 24. They've got a positive contact but were in the wrong place at the time. India is requesting order to pursue."
Seahawk-23 was from the Japanese frigate Ikazuchi operating 5 miles west of him. He COULD turn the frigate loose to investigate instead but...
"Launch Seahawk to the reported contact. Control, left rudder 15 degrees, 15knots."
-Aye captain. Left 15 degrees, 15knots.-
He would not be taken out of action for anything.
Winston Churchill was part of the three-ship outer picket line of the Kennedy battle group. Ikazuchi, a Murasame-class ASW frigate, was cruising 5 miles west and an Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate Vandegrift sailed only 3 miles northeast of himself. The Kennedy battle group was a large formation of surface ships, composed of warships from 8 different nations.
Opposing the group, however, was force of 5 submarines. USN nuclear attack submarines, as well as conventional submarine of Australia, Korea, and Japan lurked in their path, waiting. For exercise's sake, the group's maneuver had been limited to a speck of ocean, and that gave the diesel attack submarines a good chance at hitting them. The group could not maneuver rapidly to run from the diesel subs, and that meant going face-to-face with them. He held no objections to that decision.
****
"Down winch."
The Seahawk ASW helicopter slowed to a hover, and the power winch in the center of the helo began operating. Hanging from the steel cable was a big and bulky object, shaped like an oversized club with lot of semicircular bumps on the surface. The object approached the sea slowly as the cable unwounded.
"Come on, come on..."
The pilot watched impatiently as the dipping sonar slowly broke the surface, and disappeared under the waves. The winches were supposedly 'high-powered', but it felt as if they were crawling. The winch lowered the sonar deep into the dept of the sea.
-Sonar at 320ft.-
The ASW gear operator in the back reported.
"Go active?"
The copilot asked from the side seat. The pilot wondered. Would the sub be under the thermal layer or would it try to spoof him some other way? Tricky question, but he had no time to dwell on it. The sub would try to escape as soon as it heard his approach.
"Ping the area."
With a sharp tone, the sonar released a high-frequency sound wave. The wave traveled in spherical shape, filling the water with the bone-chilling noise. The sonar released 2 more beams, then stopped. It was time to listen.
-Nothing. We've got nothing.-
The ASW operator reported dejectedly even as he continued to listen for any type of return signal. No sound, nothing at all. The sonobuoys transmitting data directly to the computer were not hearing anything. If anything were here, he would be able to hear it.
"Damn..."
Had he been wrong? Or had the sub driver simply outmaneuvered him this time?
"Let's go northwest and drop buoys. Set dept stop to 470ft."
The key was patience. In this business, the one who goofs first lost. Again, Again, and AGAIN!
****
-Active ping, 2-5-0, distance 2000. Below the layer captain.-
"Excellent."
Commander Namura Hayasaki smiled at the report. The American Seahawk had followed the usual submarine hunting doctrine and assumed he would try to hide below the thermal later after the detection earlier. A textbook response, but he had read that book before. Too bad. After the rather unsuspected active ping from one of the discarded sonobuoys, he had taken Uzushio up, rather than down as anyone might have expected. The thermal layer, separating cold water below from warm water near the surface, had played hell with the helo's active sonar beam. The temperature difference was over a 12 degrees Celsius spread, and that reflected the sound beams by themselves. Any leftover signal that DID penetrate the layer had been dissolved by Uzushio's excellent anechoic tiles.
As part of the 5 ship opposition sub-surface group, Commander Namura had been stalking the battle group for hours now. The group was fast, but he only had to get into proper position. Dashing at speed excess of 10knots would have drain the batteries quite a bit, but the Stirling AIP system imported from Sweden's Kockums had improved Uzushio's underwater capability significantly.
"Where is Target-7?"
Namura suddenly asked the sonar room. Target-7 was a Type93 nuclear attack submarine from China, probably here to observe the exercise and gather intelligence data. The People's Liberation Army Navy had sent observation teams to RIMPAC officially, but the observation team, usually stuck in one of the surface ships, rarely got to see anything of importance. That nuclear attack submarine had stupidly blundered into DICASS active sonobuoy line while attempting to track his boat. They had to flee before Seahawks showed up to confirm their presence in exercise area. Although the exercise zone was not restricted per say, detection of their submarine would have embarrassed PLAN command deeply.
-Target-7 is on bearing 1-7-8, running at speed of 16knots captain. We cannot tell the distance with the flank array only.-
"Understood."
He was rather shocked to see the actual performance of the newest Chinese attack submarine. He had commanded Harushio-class Arashio in 2nd Submarine Group only shortly before taking command of Uzushio in 1st Submarine Group. The 2nd Group mainly operated in southern ocean while the 1st's theater of operation was the northern oceans. The only formidable Chinese submarine he had chance to run into was the Kilo class SSK PLAN had imported from Russia years before. The aging Han class SSN was not an opponent worthy of name.
The newest Type93, however, was different. Making use of technological assistance from the Russians, they had developed a very silent and deadly submarine. The propulsion unit did make lot of scrap noises, but the hull and propulsion itself had matched that of American's 688I class submarines. Unlike American or British SSNs, the Type93 used French style of nuclear propulsion of generating electrical power forehand before turning the screw. The system generated less noise with relatively simple design, and thus created worries for the JMSDF commanders.
But damned if I'm ever going to lose to one of them!
He thought proudly as he remembered the game he played with the sub. He played with both Russian and US nuclear attack boats, and they were far more experienced and skillful compared to their Chinese counterparts. China may have gotten capable submarines, but the quality of the crew and it's commander was still questionable. It was the first time these sub commanders have gotten a nuclear submarine that did not announce it's presence in the water immediately. They also had a scratch team from both the nuclear and diesel services, and were not ready for a full deployment. It was foolish of PLAN command to send it to Pacific's biggest naval exercise. Sending inexperienced and uncoordinated crew against world's best and most experienced...... Pacific was not yet within China's grasp.
-Conn, Sonar, surface signal bearing 3-5-2. Gas turbine, type unknown. Blade count makes it doing 15knots captain.-
Looked like the cavalry finally showed up. He had to blame the Chinese for that.
"Take her down, deep!"
"Maximum down stream, fill bow tanks now."
Namura ordered to dive the ship deeper, and the XO next to him specified the command. ASW helicopters were one thing, destroyers were quite another. Submarine had advantage in a face-off with surface ships, but with their big sonar system, supported by bigger computer and more people, destroyer were capable opponents.
As the crew watched and listened silently, the ship sunk deeper and deeper into the sea. The sharp, yet low sound of twisting metal sent chills down everyone's spines. Uzushio was receiving unimaginable pressure from the surrounding water, pressure great enough to crush anyone exposed to it.
"Dept 440meters."
"All stop, buoyancy neutral. Operate trim tank."
"Ordering all stop in engines."
The diving dept officer licked his lip. It was not common for a diesel submarine to dive quite so deep. Although the official safe diving dept of Oyashio class submarine was 360m, they could dive another 100m without any worries, and 100m more if the situation demanded it so. However, there were not many situations where Oyashio-class risked diving that deep. If center of gravity should be lost in this dept, the submarine would flip, with no means to recover other then to wait for a submarine rescue ship to show up. That would be death sentence to every and single one of their careers.
"Now what captain?"
Turing to face the XO, Namura smiled.
"Now we wait."
****
The Kennedy air group was composed of both old and new concept of airgroup. The group held 1 squadron of Tomcat, and 1 squadron of FA-18 Hornet attack fighters. As new addition, 2 squadrons of FA-18 Super Hornet of E/F variant each had replaced 1 Tomcat and 1 Hornet squadron.
Two of those new FA-18F Super Hornets were flying BARCAP (BARrier Combat Air Patrol) 300km advance of the battle group itself.
-Spade-1, this is Hawkeye-3. We've got some business for you.-
"Well, will you look at that?"
Captain Waller looked briefly down at his expended MFD to see several blips coming at him from Guam. The F-15s from Anderson probably.
Starting on 2006, the RIMPAC exercise had evolved to include aerial combat as well as standard naval exercise. Several nations took turns in playing aggressor against the carrier battle group. This year was Japan's turn.
-They're heading for us Spade-1.-
"I realize that -2. We're going burner."
He flipped a switch in his cockpit, and activated his fighter's afterburner. The Super Hornet was not a fast fighter per say, with maximum speed of only mach 1.8. He wasn't sure if he could prevail against mach 2.5 capable Eagles.
"In range, going Slammer."
Working quickly, he warmed up the AMRAAM medium-range air-to-air missiles hanging under his airframe. The process of warming up missile's radar seekers used to take very long time, about 30 seconds or so. But with introduction of newer computer technologies, the time had been reduced to mere few seconds.
Waller already had targets picked out from Hawkeye's data-linked radar screen, but he needed more accurate data for his missiles.
"Energize radar."
Moments later, the screen now showed data his APG-73 radar was getting. He programmed several AMRAAMs for LOBL (Lock On Before Launch) mode to engage successive targets and leave room to dodge return shots. The Super Hornet could engage 8 targets simultaneously, but he only had 4.
"Fox-1! Fox-1 with one!"
The simulated rounds, or 'dud' rounds recorded launch time, data and transmitted the recorded data to Kennedy and Anderson. They would simulate engagement with computers and decide who's dead and who's alive. The thought troubled him somewhat.
The opposing F-15Js, guided by powerful E-767 AWACS bird behind them, energized their radar as well and fired off a return volley. Since Japan refused to tell the capability parameter of their AAM-4(obviously), The F-15Js were simulated as if armed with US AMRAAMs.
Turning up the ECM gear to maximum, he chopped power and dove toward the water, attempting to lose himself in the radar clutter of the sea. Deploying several chaffs along the way, he quickly leveled the fighter and blazed over the sea with barely 100ft of air between him and the surface of the ocean.
Captain Waller waited several tense moments. This was dumb, very dumb in fact. Both sides were guided by airborne radar aircraft, and had exactly same type of weapons. The fighters were allowed one shot at each of the opposing aircrafts, no more, no less. In a real combat situation, he would have had at least two missiles targeted at each of the aircraft for ensured destruction.
-Spade-2, you've been hit and destroyed. Turn back now.-
A dull voice from E-2C radar surveillance aircraft announced the death of his wingman.
-Roger Hawkeye-3, WILCO.-
The energy was gone from the young lieutenant's voice, but he was in no condition to sympathize. From the MFD screen, he saw two F-15s turning back, but two were still closing on him at high mach speed. He was alone and his plane couldn't maneuver worth a damn compared to the Eagles. The fact that his fighter was called Super Slow Hornet by the test pilots did not help.
Well fuck that.
Increasing throttle, he pulled back on the stick and increased altitude. There was no way he was going to enter optimum altitude for air-combat maneuvering, but he still had to try. The radar screen told him that he was only 30nautical miles away from the flight of Eagles, but he couldn't spot them. The Japanese had painted their Eagle fighter with bluish-gray to make it hard to spot over the sea.
Leveling off at 17,000ft, he continued to search visually. How the hell was he suppose to hunt for something that wasn't....
"Tallyho!"
There, against the white puffy cloud, flew a grayish speck. That speck rapidly grew into a twin-rudder fighter jet. The famous F-15 Eagle, designed by Boeing, but produced under license by Mitsubishi for designation F-15J, was a name to be remembered in history book of aviation. Hitting rudder pedal hard, he pointed his fighter's noise toward where the fighter was. The JHMCS finally identified the aircraft and began tracking. The Japanese pilot must have seen him, because in the next moment, the Eagle was turning, straining the aircraft at 5gee. Waller followed him in, the Super Hornet responding surprisingly well to his command.
Attempting to catch each other's '6' position, the two fighters entered Scissors maneuver of twisting and turning. The F100 P&W engine gave F-15 edge in thrust power, but the twin F414 GE engine permitted him to match it's maneuver move by move. The Super Hornet's airframe, however, was not meant for close quarter battle, as the design provided too much airflow resistance. As he felt the fighter lose it's velocity, Waller decided to pull out of the maneuver.
Deploying airbrakes, he felt his plane slow suddenly from the straining he received from the straps. The Eagle shot forward, giving a perfect launch position for him. The Sidewinder's garbled tone was loud and clear, and though only a training round, he smiled at his victory.
-Fox-2! Fox-2!-
An accented voice suddenly broke the moment of silence. The Eagle he had been pursuing suddenly broke away from his line of sight and rolled clear. Just as he began grasping the situation, operator from the Hawkeye radioed in.
-Spade-1, you've taken missile hit and died. Return to Kenney immediately.-
Unable to believe what he was hearing, he turned his head. Another F-15J was flying behind him, trailing scarcely by 700m or so. He would've died in seconds if this was real. The F-15 he'd been chasing until few moments ago formed up behind the victorious fighter. The Japanese pilot looked at him, and gave a thumbs up before turning away.
"Shit."
No other word explained the situation better then that. Captain Thomas Waller, a proud officer and fighter pilot of United State's Navy, had just been had, big time.
****
"Isn't THAT a surprise?"
Commander Dean Muller gritted his teeth as he watched the two Super Hornet fighters return to the carrier. As Kennedy's CAG, he'd decided to test capabilities of new FA-18F squadron. He deployed the Super Hornets for BARCAP while deploying vaunted Tomcats over the carrier group for point defense. The result had been horrific. Out of the 12 aircrafts deployed, 7 were lost, 3 while in ACM. The Japanese had lost 6 Eagles, but only 1 in close combat. The Japanese were still probing remorselessly, looking for a breach where their F-2 strike fighters, armed with anti-ship missiles, could blaze through and launch their attacks against the carrier group. He now had the single Tomcat squad deployed ahead and had turned the Hornets to cover the fleet itself. The Japanese were dauntless, but the Tomcats, with their Phoenix missiles, were keeping them from entering their attack range.
The Super Hornets had been a real disappointment for him. He had flown the F-14 Tomcat all his pilot career, and could not imagine a better aircraft. It was fast, and though not as maneuverable as the counterparts in the Airscouts, could engage targets farther then any of them could imagine. But the FA-18F was hugely different. They did not have fitting BVR capability to replace the Phoenixes, could not move fast enough to get into firing position like the Tomcats, and were not in the league of modern-day air superiority fighters in ACM.
The exercise clearly showed limits of FA-18s against well-armed and well-equipped modern air force. If the naval version of the F-22 stealth fighter had been accepted there would have been no problem. But the proposed F-22N had been shot down, and with Tomcat21 proposed by Northrop Grumman killed by Donald Rumsfeld, the navy was left with Hornets and the JSF, neither impressive aircrafts per say.
-Commander Muller, Hawkeye-3 detected multiple aerial contacts supported by jamming.-
Surprised, he looked into the color display, hanging in the center of the CIC. The radar picture being linked by Hawkeye-3 was being obscured by mass white noise jamming coming in from Guam. He feared a dedicated strike mission.
"Send Hawkeye-1 to the immediate vicinity and tell Hawkeye-3 to advance to get better picture. Have two Tomcats in escort, Shoot off the Fives, a Growler then prepare all the Tens for launch."
He watched the screen and saw the Hawkeye radar bird advancing toward the source of the jamming. Two Tomcats immediately formed up around it, their radar on and sweeping the sky for any sign of fighters. 4 more Tomcats were responding toward the disturbance while the aircrafts were being assembled for launch. Even as he watched, a FA-18F fighter screamed down the catapult and into the sky.
****
Uncaring of the furious air battle about to ensue above, a quiet creature of the sea stalked the surface ships. The massive black hull glided through the water with grace and forbiddance like the deadly sea creature of the sailor's myths. USS Columbia, a Los Angeles class nuclear attack submarine, was tracking the carrier battle group from the rear, waiting, and biding time until it was time to strike.
-Conn, sonar, Kennedy just hit gas sir. She's reaching 32 knots and still increasing speed.-
The sonar chief reported, but it was not really necessary. The monster 4 screw was creating enough noise and turbulence, that it was actually shaking the boat. The navigator was having difficulty controlling the ship, but he had enough experience to keep the ship from breaking the surface, and that was what all he needed at the moment.
No, tracking the damned carrier wasn't important.
Shaking his head, Captain Sean McCoy looked into the 32in display and watched the green dots that represented surface ships. Kennedy was no easy target. She was first surrounded by ring of air defense destroyers and cruisers for defense against missiles. Supporting these were anti-submarine destroyers. They were actively searching the water for submarines, and continued to watch for any air attacks from either submarine or airplane launched missiles. Outside this defense line sailed smaller picket forces consisting of destroyers and frigates. Not only that, ASW helos and aircrafts constantly flew by, dropping sonobuoys and performing MAD (Magnetic Anomaly Detector) searches inside and around the group parameter. It was almost impenetrable line of defense.
But they had a plan for that. USS Portsmouth was tracking the group south of himself, just as close as he was, if not closer. And three diesel submarines lurked in the water northwest of the group's path. They were all going to bore down on the carrier on a single attack.
It had all come together two nights ago, just after a SINEX live-fire exercise. Columbia had been embarrassed before in 1998 when a Korean diesel sub broke Oklahoma in two with a single under-the-keel torpedo shot. Columbia was suppose to launch the next attack, but never got a chance to test the vaunted Mk48ADCAP torp. This year, however, he was able to fire a Harpoon and Mk48ADCAP into it, forcing the ship to list badly with flooding. Salvo of Type89 torpedoes from Uzushio had finished it off, blowing the old hull out of the water. The submarine commanders and officers had gotten together at a local bar in Pearl after a good mission. They've all gotten a piece of the old cruiser.
"I'm worried about the next exercise."
It was Captain Sung from ROKS Chae Uen Duk who spoke first.
"What? The maneuver exercise? It's a piece of cake my friend, don't worry about it."
Captain Namura Hayasaki scoffed at his American counterpart on Columbia.
"For you perhaps Captain McCoy. Your sub can run fast as the carrier group can." He took a sip from his beer. "WE, on the other hand, are not so lucky. Despite the limited room for maneuvering, the carrier can run about the twice the speed our boats can manage. We can track, and launch torpedoes from good distance and bite off some escorts, but not the carrier. Too many obstacles, and not good enough firing data."
"Right." Sung agreed. "Making max use of my Blackshark, I can attack from, say 50km out in Wakehoming mode, which of course, does not count as variable option here, or 20km and guide all the way in with wire, But, not only is long distance engagement low probable, it's not accurate enough to attack the carrier."
"Not even with the AIPs?"
Kenneth Summers, XO of Portsmouth asked. He'd only operated in Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean so far, and was not familiar with the newest trend in diesel attack boats, the Air Independent Propulsion.
"No." It was the CO from HMAS Collin. His XO elaborated. "The power output is not enough. With a burst speed... yeah, stay with it for several minutes, but that's all. Out battery will exhaust too quickly for that."
McCoy's brain began processing all the information. The kills diesel attack boats had made during former exercises had been when the surface ships had stopped or when they came looking. No allied nation's SSKs had been able to touch the task group when they were moving at speed excess of 30knots. But for this exercise, the group was moving constantly at speed of around 30knots because they were launching and retrieving aircrafts. Destroyers, frigates and anti-sub aircrafts they could handle, but their biggest enemy was speed, and time.
"So basically, you don't have time to get firing solution and launch..."
An idea struck his head.
"What if we GAVE you that time?"
That turned heads.
"Let me elaborate. The problem you have is that you don't get enough time to get firing solution on the target, launch, and get out, right? They run too fast for that." He took a sip from his drink while others waited impatiently. He used the time to organize his thoughts. "So, what if Portsmouth and I GET the carrier running straight at you? We can launch two directional attacks to herd the 'cans to the direction we want. The direction where YOU will be waiting."
"Wolfpack?"
Collin's CO asked. McCoy nodded his head.
"Or something close enough. Multi-directional attacks would confuse them, and we can maximize their confusion if properly timed. They would never expect us to be in the same place, at the same time. We aren't suppose to communicate with each other during the mission time, remember?"
The term Wolfpack went a long way in submarine history. During WWII, Admiral Donnetz's Uboats were desperately trying to close the Atlantic of all allied shipping. With their surface fleet no match for British and America's, they employed their excellent submarines to attack transports. Soon, the British and the Americans formed a convoy of merchant vessels guarded by antisubmarine warships and aircrafts. The merchants were called the 'sheep', destroyers 'shepherd's dogs' and the submarines 'wolves'. The Germans response to the convoy was the Wolfpack. As many as 12 submarines would group up and sail. If one detected a convoy, they would report to the rest of the group and track it. When they gathered, they would release multiple torpedoes simultaneously at the convoy for maximum damage and cripple the merchant group and make their escape amidst the chaos. This had been quite successful in the beginning, and had seriously hampered the allied force's supplying capability.
"But how do we time the attack? How could we get the carrier to the EXACT location we want?"
Captain Sung questioned, with his counterparts of Japan and Australia nodding in agreement. Timing had to EXACT on such missions. If timing of attacks or movement of the targets were off, it would fail.
"Simple, we shape the trap as we go." Every man at the table shared a look. "Let me elaborate," He continued. Several minutes later, he had his follow commanders nodding.
****