Battlefield Pacific

Hunter Becomes the Hunted

Captain Michael Mohl smiled as he looked at the sonar display. His ship, the USS North Dakota, had been stalking the Haikou, a Lanzhou-class Chinese destroyer, for the past two days. They had seen the destroyer escorting a convoy of roughly twenty-six cargo ships, and they had also spotted four other Jiangkai-class antisubmarine warfare frigates in the pack.

“Do you think we can take the destroyer before those frigates would be all over us?” asked Lieutenant Commander Paul Delta, the newly assigned executive officer. Commander Mohl’s previous XO had had to be emergency-lifted off the ship when he’d had a medical emergency arise. Lieutenant Commander Delta had assumed the role, at least until the ship returned to port and Captain Mohl’s XO could officially be replaced.

“The question you should ask is how many of those frigates do you think we can send to the bottom before they figure out we’re here?” Mohl said in response to the young officer. Delta was a good officer, if a bit young for his rank. With the loss of so many naval officers and NCOs since the start of the war, everyone was getting promoted ahead of the normal schedule.

“Weps, what are your thoughts?” asked Captain Mohl as he looked at his weapons officer.

“It’s risky, Sir. We can easily get a shot off at that destroyer and be well away from the area by the time they figure out they’re in danger. My concern isn’t so much with the frigates finding us as it is with their helicopters. If they’re able to catch a beat on us, they could get a torpedo or two off on us,” the weapons officer replied.

Captain Mohl thought about the problem for a moment, looking at the display of where the enemy ships were in relationship to their weapons capabilities. He calculated a plan.

“Let’s move to this position here,” the captain said, pointing to a spot on the map. “When we’re ready, I want one torpedo fired at the Haikou and one fired at the Sanya, that frigate over here. Then we’ll run deep. We’ll go down to 1,200 feet and maneuver toward these two frigates here. Thoughts?”

The small group of officers stood there digesting what the captain had just said, going over the pros and cons of the strategy. The more they looked at the plan, the better they all felt about it. The officers agreed with the captain’s assessment — not that they had much choice in the matter, but they felt they had a better-than-average chance of sinking more than one ship this way. Maybe they’d even be able to take a couple of freighters down.

Forty minutes went by as the North Dakota continued to stealthily move into its attack position. The crew in the sonar room was doing their best to make sure they hadn’t missed any other potential threats. Everyone knew they would be firing their torpedoes soon.

A few minutes later, the Haikou crossed into the attack envelope they had agreed upon, and the captain gave the order. “Fire torpedoes one, three, and four!” Mohl announced.

Within seconds, they heard the whooshing sound as, one after another, three torpedoes were fired from the sub.

“All ahead full speed. Take us down to 1,200 feet, bearing 273,” the captain ordered.

Two minutes into their sprint away from the firing point, the sonar operator’s face suddenly went white. “Con, Sonar. New contact. Sierra One. Confirmed, Yuan-class submarine.”

Lieutenant Gillan had been observing the sonar operators. He grabbed the mic. “Con, Sonar. Torpedo in the water. 4,500 yards and closing quickly.”

The active pinging could be heard now as the torpedo raced toward them.

The captain immediately ordered, “Fire off the noisemakers! Turn sharply to port! And get me a firing solution on that enemy submarine now!”

The tension in the Con was building as they anxiously waited to see if the enemy torpedo was going to go for the noisemaker. As the sub finished making a tight turn and another depth adjustment, the weapons officer shouted, “We have a solution on the enemy sub!”

Captain Mohl turned to the officer and shouted, “Fire!”

Once they had launched the torpedo, the captain put out another set of orders. “Helm, come to starboard twenty degrees. Bring us down another 200 feet.”

While everyone in the submarine listened to the enemy submarine’s torpedo close in on them, they felt and heard an explosion. The enemy torpedo had gone for the noisemaker. The immediate threat was over, unless they came across another submarine.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Captain Mohl looked at the sonar screen, watching their own torpedo home in on the Chinese submarine. All of a sudden, they all saw a new contact emerge from out of nowhere. A new, strange sound, unlike that of any submarine or torpedo they had ever heard, abruptly blanketed the water, sounding almost like a rocket being fired underwater. The speed at which the new contact was traveling was incredible; it clearly did not have the characteristics of a standard torpedo. This did not bode well for their continued survival.

“Fire another set of noisemakers, ahead flank speed!” yelled the captain. New beads of sweat formed on his forehead. It was clear to him that they weren’t going to outrun this new threat. If it didn’t go for their noisemaker, they were doomed.

Two minutes went by. The unknown threat barreled through the noisemaker, closing in on them. The noise grew ever louder, until a violent explosion rocked the ship. Water flooded into the ship from the multiple holes that had been punched through the hull.

Captain Liu Huaqing was honored to have been chosen as the commander of the new and secretive Type 095 or Wuhan-class submarine. It was the only submarine of its design and capability in the world. The Wuhan was built on the strengths and weaknesses of the American Virginia-class attack submarine. With specially placed moles within the US Navy and the defense companies responsible for building the American submarines, they had stolen many of the classified technical details that gave the American designs an edge against their peers.

After nearly a decade in development and two years of construction, the Wuhan was finally operational and ready to go hunting, and it was equipped with the brand-new super high-speed torpedoes. These new projectiles could reach speeds of 150 knots with a range of ten kilometers.

Two days ago, when the surface warships had met the convoy of ships they would escort to the Philippines, Captain Liu’s sonar room had picked up a faint signature of a possible submerged contact.

“Move closer in that general direction,” Liu had ordered. “Let’s see if we can get a better feel of what we may be dealing with.”

As the hours and then days had dragged on, they continued to observe the contact coming in and out of focus on their sonar, all the while ensuring they kept themselves positioned near the center of the convoy. Suddenly, their sonar detected the launch of three torpedoes originating from the general area they had been tracking.

“Ahead full speed!” directed the captain. He was moving them toward the action.

They were at the absolute edge of their weapons range, and they needed to close the distance if they were going to have any chance at taking the enemy submarine out. While their sub sped in the direction of the Americans, a Yuan-class advanced diesel submarine fired a torpedo at the American vessel.

The Yankee sub quickly went to flank speed and took evasive maneuvers. As the Americans moved to evade the new threat, their sonar room was able to firm up a firing solution on them. Once the weapons officer confirmed with Captain Liu that they were ready to fire the new weapon, he gave the order. “Fire torpedo one!”

A rushing of air and water could be heard as the newly designed torpedo was ejected from its tube into the dark water of the South China Sea. The engine started, and the torpedo got up to speed. At first, it ran up to 45 knots; then its super cavitator took over and the torpedo accelerated to 150 knots.

The Americans quickly reacted to the new threat posed to them. However, the Wuhan’s new torpedo closed the distance too quickly for them to have a chance at shaking it. As the minutes slowly ran down, the distance between the American submarine and China’s new underwater superweapon slowly merged to become one… ending with a thunderous explosion and the death of over a hundred American sailors.