Battlefield Korea

Setting the Trap

Captain Yuri Popov drank his coffee, lost for a moment in his thoughts. “I still can’t believe that I’m here,” he marveled. “I had hoped that cooler heads would prevail, and we could not go to war, but now that our brothers in the Black Sea have sunk an American Supercarrier, we might actually have a chance at winning. The American Navy has the best equipment and technology that money can buy, but if we could sink one of their Supercarriers, maybe they aren’t as good as everyone thought that they were… Well, if the Black Sea fleet could sink a carrier, then surely our little wolfpack can sink a few freighters in the Atlantic.”

Captain Popov reached the bottom of his cup of Joe, and moved back to action, signaling for his executive officer to join him at the map table while they discussed the plan of attack.

“To review, once we get in range of our cruise missiles, we are going to be the first to fire. Then as the NATO anti-submarine forces move towards us, our two Akula submarines will close in on the convoy and attack with their torpedoes.”

Mikhail, the XO, nodded.

Popov continued, “I want you to send a message to the Akulas. Tell them to position themselves in this area here.” He pointed to a spot on the map, roughly 140 miles from the mouth of the New York Harbor.

“Ay, Sir,” Mikhail responded.

The captain went on, “Our last intelligence report, which is only two hours old, said a group of fifteen freighters left Baltimore Harbor yesterday, and a group of six US Navy ships left Norfolk about the same time. Both groups are headed to New York, most likely to link up with this other group of twelve freighters and four additional naval ships. Altogether, that makes 27 freighters being guarded by ten navy ships. Of the ten naval ships, three of them are actually Marine amphibious assault ships, so they will not pose a serious threat to us.”

“The Akulas should be ready to commence their attack as soon as they hear our cruise missiles launch. If they have a clear shot, they should target the Marine amphibious troop ships first. If not, then they should take out the largest freighters that they can-those will most likely be the roll-on, roll-off ships that would be carrying the heavy armor units.” Captain Popov paused for a moment to allow his XO to catch up; he had been writing notes down, and he was getting a little behind.

Pointing to another position roughly 150 miles off the coast of Nova Scotia, Popov resumed his explanation. “When everyone has carried out their attacks, we will rendezvous at this location here. Then we will regroup and determine what Moscow wants us to do next,” he said with a smile.

Mikhail’s mouth also curled up to one side, mischievously. “Sounds good, Sir. I’ll get these instructions written up and sent off within the next two hours.”

Prior to the conflict, the Russian Navy had equipped their submarines with a new buoy communication system. At certain times on different days, the subs would raise the buoy to just below the surface and send or receive a set of messages. The buoy would stay just below the surface, sending several small antennas above the water for no more than sixty seconds, just long enough to send and receive a burst message and then dip back below the waves. The time window was coming up soon.

“Good,” Popov responded. “We need to get moving if we are going to be in position to attack the convoy when it leaves for Europe tomorrow. We are set to make contact in less than 24 hours.”