Battlefield Ukraine

30,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Admiral James Munch was extremely nervous as his carrier strike group began to exit the Bosphorus into the Black Sea. They were entering the Russians’ pond, and he had a bad feeling the Russians had a nasty surprise waiting for them. Several of his destroyers and frigates had reported the presence of multiple submarine contacts, and so did the two attack submarines that were escorting his strike group. Although he had thirteen cruisers, destroyers, frigates and submarines in his strike group, all of the intelligence leading up to today indicated that war with Russia was imminent, and no amount of force was ever “enough” when beginning a conflict.

Captain John Miller, the captain of the USS Bush, found the Admiral in the Combat Information Center (CIC) and handed him a message. “Sir, the O'Bannon has positive contact on four Kilo submarines and two Akulas. They had contact with an Oscar, but lost it about five minutes ago. The subs are keeping their distance, but they are not shy about making their presence known,” the captain said nervously.

“The strike group may be the responsibility of the Admiral,” thought Captain Miller, “but the carrier is mine. I do not like the way this looks…”

The Admiral seemed to agree with Miller’s unspoken thoughts. “I don’t like this John — not one bit. I almost feel like we are walking into some sort of trap.” He looked around the room. Everyone was busy trying to digest all the potential threats to the strike group and what they all meant. “How many more ships still need to exit the straits before we can get some maneuver room?” he asked.

The captain walked over to one of the computer screens being manned by a petty officer 1^st class. After analyzing what he saw for a moment, he answered, “Just two — both frigates. What are you thinking, sir?”

The Admiral asked, “If you were going to lay a trap for a carrier strike group exiting the Bosphorus, when would you spring it?”

Several of the officers and sailors stopped what they were doing and turned to the Captain to see what he would say. The admiral had asked a good question. While the captain was formulating a response, one of the communications officers interrupted everyone’s thoughts with an urgent message.

“Captain, you need to see this,” announced Petty Officer King, who had been manning one of the communications terminals.

Just then, Archie Martin, another petty officer who had been monitoring the navigation and map of the strike group, stood up and blurted out, “We just lost our GPS signals!”

The Admiral walked towards Petty Officer Martin. “What do you mean, ‘we just lost our GPS signal?’ Is it a problem on our end?” he asked, hoping it was just a glitch.

“It’s not a computer malfunction,” explained Petty Officer King. “We just lost our satellite link with NAVEUR and the rest of the fleet. I’ve switched us over to standard radio communications, but it will degrade the volume of data that can be sent between the fleet and fleet headquarters,” he said to the horror of everyone in the room.

If the fleet had lost access to the GPS and communication satellites, then that meant they could not properly coordinate their defenses or communicate with higher headquarters as quickly or securely as they had just a few minutes ago. The Admiral knew immediately what this meant; the Russians had just taken down America’s satellite capabilities in preparation of an attack. It’s what he would have done if the roles were reversed.

In that instant, Admiral Munch took control of the situation and began to issue orders to the fleet. “Sound general quarters. Bring the fleet to Condition One and order the DDs and ASW assets to engage and destroy the Russian submarines now!” he shouted.

Then he turned to the captain. “Get this ship moving to flank speed immediately, and prepare for a Russian attack,” Munch said in an urgent and commanding voice.

Just as the Captain was about to say that perhaps they should try to raise NAVEUR to see if they were experiencing the same problem, one of the officers manning the carrier’s defense systems shouted, “Vampires! Vampires! We have inbound cruise missiles coming from heading 018. I count four missiles. Fifty seconds to impact!”

Everyone’s eyes simultaneously turned towards the officer who had just shouted, and then to the threat monitor on one of the walls.

Another voice shouted, “Torpedoes in the water! I count one — no four torpedoes heading towards us. Make that thirteen torpedoes now. They appear to be targeting several of the ships in the fleet!”