Cyber Warfare and the New World Order

Thompson’s Last Mission

Captain Thompson was on his last combat patrol as the Commander of the Seawolf. He had just received word that he was being promoted to Rear Admiral and would be taking over command of the navy’s submarine training squadron. It was a non-combat role, but one that would give him two years of shore duty and time with his family. It would also position him for his second star, so from that perspective, he thought it was going to be a great assignment.

His ship had survived multiple enemy engagements this year, and as a crew, had the most tonnage sunk of any US submarine. They sunk one of the Chinese Supercarriers (and one of the Japanese carriers) and damaged the others enough that it proved to be a turning point in the battle for Hawaii. Everyone on his ship had been awarded the Bronze Star with V device for Valor. He was given the opportunity to award ten members of the ship the Silver Star and had also presented two Navy Crosses. Captain Thompson himself had been awarded the Navy Cross as the commander of the sub. For their last patrol with him as commander, they had been ordered into the East China Sea, about eighty miles northeast of Shanghai, just off the coast of Qingdao, one of the largest shipping ports in the country.

With Japan neutralized and now functioning as a launch pad for the coming invasion, the Allies were now moving more and more subs and ships into the East and South China Seas, to begin locking down their ports. The Navy had finally cut the Chinese shipping lanes off from the rest of the world and their other captured territories. The Allies had been working hard to cut China off from Africa and the island nations of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. They did not plan on liberating the Philippines or invading Indonesia. Instead, their plan was to isolate them and conduct surgical air strikes against their forces to degrade them over time.

The Seawolf was given the mission of launching a series of cruise missiles at the port and then slipping away to return to their base of operations in Japan. As his sub came to launch depth, he looked at his XO and said, “Ready the missiles, I want to launch them as quickly as possible so we can get out of here.”

“Yes, Sir,” the XO responded.

Captain Thompson continued, “COB, once the missiles have launched, I want us to dive to 900 feet and begin to move away from here at eight knots.”

“Ay, Ay, Sir,” replied the COB.

Turning to his weapons officer, the Captain simply nodded, indicating it was time.

Then he announced, “Fire all missiles.”

It only took seconds, but then the ship shuddered slightly as the blast doors began to blow and a series of cruise missiles began to be ejected from the missile bays. Every three seconds, another blast door opened as a cruise missile was launched, until all sixteen had been fired.

Immediately following the launch of the missiles, the sub began a steep dive, picking up speed until it reached eight knots. “Conn, Sonar — do we have any contacts?” asked the Captain, hoping they were going to make a clean get-away.

There was a pause as they waited for the update. Petty Officer Wilks was listening intensely to his headset and watching the computer screen in front of him. They had not heard any Chinese subs in the last two days, but that did not mean they were not out there. A few minutes later the Captain called asking for an update. “Sonar, Conn — we are not showing enemy submarines in the area,” Wilks said to the Captain.

They all breathed a sigh of relief. Launching their cruise missiles was probably one of the most vulnerable positions a sub could be in.

Twenty minutes after firing their cruise missiles, the Captain was fairly certain they had not been detected, so he ordered the ship to increase speed to 12 knots and deploy the towed sonar array. If an enemy submarine was out there, then chances are the towed array would be able to find them. It looked like his final combat mission of the war was a success.