SSN

    The remaining Akula, with its own towed array, had shown that he could be a quiet adversary. Naval intelligence still had not learned much about that sensor capability, so Mack decided to play it safe. He elected to follow the same plan he had used successfully earlier, steering the torpedoes off target so they would be attacking from bearings other than Cheyenne's location.

    "Make tubes one and two ready in all respects, including opening the outer doors, fire-control, torpedo room, aye."

    After the torpedo room reported completing the ordered evolution with the torpedo tubes, the executive officer informed Mack, "Captain, tubes one and two are ready in all respects. Both outer doors are open."

    "Very well, fire control," answered the captain.

    The Akula was tracking to the southwest. Cheyenne was closing the range, intending to intercept with a fire-control solution before the Akula could reach detection range on Cheyenne.

    The Akula continued drawing left as Cheyenne closed. It, too, was otherwise quiet, with no contact on the spherical or conformal arrays. Because of this, the BSY-1 operators had to rely on the readings from the TB-23, assisted by Mack's course changes, to make the solution possible for the fire-control party. When both they and the fire-control coordinator were satisfied with the TMA (target motion analysis) solution on Master 127, the Russian Akula II SSN, the captain ordered, "Firing point procedures, Master 127."

    The combat systems officer at the weapons control console reported the target course as 200, speed four, and range 27,250 yards.

    "Sonar, conn, stand by." "Conn, sonar, standing by."

    "Match sonar bearings and shoot, tubes one and two." "Match sonar bearings and shoot, tubes one and two, aye."

    "Tubes one and two fired electrically," reported the combat systems officer.

    "Conn, sonar, units from tubes one and two running hot, straight, and normal," came the report from the sonar supervisor as the two torpedoes executed their wire clearance maneuvers and accelerated to slow speed for the long inbound run.

    "Very well, sonar," responded the captain. "Take charge and steer the weapons. Unit one off course ten degrees to the right and unit two off course forty-five degrees to the left." When the torpedoes were close enough for passive acquisition, they would be steered back in the opposite direction.

    "Time to turn the units?" asked the captain. 'Twenty minutes for unit one, captain," answered (he combat systems officer. "Seventeen minutes for unit two."

    The torpedoes were turned on cue. One was leading the target while the other was slightly lagging. 'Time to acquisition?" Mack asked. 'Ten minutes for unit two, Captain," the combat systems officer replied. "Twelve minutes for unit one."

    Exactly on schedule, the combat systems officer reported, "Unit two has acquired." Two minutes later he added, "Unit one has acquired." This time both torpedoes had acquired their original target. There were no more Russian submarines left out there.

    "Cut the wires, shut the outer doors, and reload tubes one and two," ordered the captain.

    "Conn, sonar, we have two torpedoes in the water, bearing 205 and drawing right!" the sonar supervisor called out. The Russian captain had launched his snap shots, but not at the bearings of the incoming torpedoes. He was wilier than the other Akula captains, and had read the report of Cheyenne's earlier tactic, which had been sent by the Akula that got away and made it to the Paracels. Guessing correctly that the captain of Cheyenne would try it again, he had launched on a bearing halfway between the oncoming torpedoes.

    Mack's ploy hadn't worked. The Russian torpedoes were headed for Cheyenne.

    "Right full rudder, all ahead flank," Mack ordered. "Do not cavitate. Make your depth one thousand feet." He wasn't sure if the Akula had detected Cheyenne on its towed array or if the Russian captain had guessed at Mack's earlier tactic. If the Akula had heard them, it knew Cheyenne's location, but if its captain had just made a lucky guess, then Mack didn't want to reveal Cheyenne to its sonar. Not unless the inbound torpedoes acquired Cheyenne and he had to. Having been deep beneath the second layer, Cheyenne was at flank speed in less than a minute, on course due east, and at one thousand feet. Mack was keeping the torpedoes at the edge of his port baffles so sonar could continue to relay bearing information.

    A short while later, the sonar supervisor reported that the torpedoes were speeding up and drawing right faster. At the same time, the WLR-9, Cheyenne's acoustic intercept receiver, started chirping at the frequency of the incoming torpedoes.

    "Conn, sonar, explosions coming from our baffles!" That was the sound of Cheyenne's two torpedoes.

    Unfortunately, because the explosions occurred in her baffles, the sonar operators could not determine what effect-if any-they'd had on the Akula.