SSN

    What Mack didn't know was that there was another Akula out there as well, one whose captain had more experience with the U.S. 688 class than his lost North Fleet fellow captain. The Akula, like the Typhoon, was refusing to be baited.

    "Conn, sonar, still nothing from the Typhoon." The captain ordered an Mk 48 prepared for "swim-out" and off-board sensor tactics. This deployment was often extremely useful, especially under-ice, where the torpedo could seek out icepicking SSBNs and send the information back to Cheyenne over the guidance wire. But Mack still wished he had the capability of a slower search speed and a frequency higher than that which could be detected by the Russian acoustic intercept receivers.

    There was such a system, FORMIDABOD, but it had not yet reached the fleet for operational use. That system was the brainchild of a previous COMSUBPAC plans officer with a vision, who had noticed that the initial indications were that the 688's original BQS-15 sonar couldn't "see" mines. Standing for Fibcr-OpLic demote M/ne Detection.And flreakOut Device, the remotely operated vehicle could advance the search, out of harm's way from the SSN, and provide acoustic information at over four times the data rate and at six times the frequency of the Russian, or U.S. for that matter, acoustic intercept receivers.

    The search for the Typhoon took a while, with the Mk 48 probing the area ahead of Cheyenne, but eventually it paid off. The off-board sensor found the Typhoon-and the Typhoon's acoustic intercept receiver found the off-board sensor.

    On board the Typhoon, with a true belief in his invincibility, the Russian captain decided to remain in place. His only reactions to the sensor's presence were to operate his spinners to twist his massive ship and to ready his 65cm and 53cm torpedoes for use against the American submarine that had sent the Mk 48 hunting. The Russian captain had no way of knowing who was out there, but he decided it must be Cheyenne.

    The Typhoon's captain ordered the interlocks broken between the port and starboard tube nests, thereby allowing him to bring all his 53cm torpedo tubes to bear at once. The Soviet Union had developed the equivalent of two torpedo-tube ejection-pump rams, one for port and one for starboard. At the same time that the Typhoon was making its preparations, Captain Mackey was formulating his own new doctrine. The normal doctrine didn't cover this situation; but that was why he was in command. His choice; his decision; no one could refute it. This situation had never developed before-but it had its parallels, if one had the brains, and the guts, to see it.

    "Firing point procedures, Master 126, tubes one and two," ordered the captain. "Firing point procedures, Master 126, tubes three and four."

    When the combat systems officer and executive officer looked to the captain with confusion, he elaborated, "Unit one for the main screws; then, when they spin up on the spinners, units two and three for the spinners. When that happens, we'll be within range behind the Typhoon to light off MIDAS. Then we'll detonate unit fAnf nvpr their missile deck."

    Mack's gutsy plan went off without a hitch. Unit one ran to the Typhoon's screws as intended. When sonar reported the spinners starting up, the next two units were guided to their points of destruction.

    With the iaunch of the last two units, Cheyenne increased speed to match that of the torpedoes. The Russian captain finally decided to launch torpedoes at Cheyenne and the missiles at Taiwan, but by then it was too late. The fourth torpedo detonated above his missile deck before the first launch tube missile hatch could be opened. The result was the dishing in of all hatches so that they couldn't be opened. In addition, the overpressure wave caused by the last Mk 48's 650 pounds of explosive, coupled with the Typhoon's depth and open torpedo tube muzzle doors, resulted in the Russian torpedo tube breech doors giving way. The torpedo room flooded and the Typhoon started to take on water.

    That would have finished just about any other submarine in any navy in the world, hut not the Typhoon. With its double hulls still intact, the would-be Russian admiral ordered all internal ballast dumped. Even if the outer ballast tanks were ruptured, the missile-tube water-compensation system would provide some buoyancy.

    With the loss of what seemed like an insignificant amount of ballast, the Typhoon accelerated rapidly to the surface, but once there the Russians learned that the emergency escape capsule-which had never been practiced on a real submarine-could not be released.