Kirov III: Pacific Storm

Samsonov stared at his board, eyes wide as he looked for data points that were simply not there. The Admiral’s orders had not been clear and specific. No weapon system was named, and he hesitated. “Sir—I have no radar locks!”

“Nothing?”

“No data, sir.”

“What are we fighting, Fedorov,” said Karpov coolly, his eyes set and a fierce expression on his face.

“Aichi D3A1,” Fedorov started, then realized this would make no sense to Karpov. “Dive bombers! High angle attack. They will come in from a cruising altitude between ten and fifteen thousand meters. Right on top of us!”

The drone of the diving planes grew louder, and a second bomb splash fell closer, an angry geyser of seawater not fifty meters off the port side of the ship.

Karpov reacted immediately. Striding quickly to the CIC, his eyes alight. The AK-760s will not elevate high enough, he knew at once. They had been designed to defeat sea skimming missiles coming at the ship on a low attack trajectory. He needed to use the an older system.

“Helm, ahead full battle speed!” Karpov shouted. “Samsonov, Kashtan system! High azimuth arc. Target zone zenith plus and minus ten degrees and fire all systems. Full missile barrage! Use infrared!”

“Aye, sir!” Samsonov shouted, and his hands moved like lightning over his system board, toggling switches until they heard the high swish of missiles firing. Thus far the older CADS-N-2 Kashtans had not come into play in their many combat scenarios. Their ancestor ships in the original Kirov class had up to six of these weapon systems installed, the earlier CADS-N-1 system. When the AK-760 Gatling guns replaced their older counterparts, it was decided to leave at least two of the Kashtan units in the order of battle for Kirov, adding just a little more defensive coverage for arcs of fire not well served by the AK-760.

The Kashtans sat like two squat heavy armed robots on each side of the ship. The head was a rapidly rotating radar antenna working in tandem with a larger dish on the unit’s chest. The two arms were the business end of the module. Each had a set of four short range missiles above what looked like a long black steel pipe housed in a sleek metal cage. The pipe was actually the outer casing of a six barreled 30mm Gatling gun, and the whole unit was a self-integrated system, independent of the ship’s primary radar systems that seemed to be completely fogged over. Two other guidance and ranging systems were also built into the unit, one for infrared and another for high powered optics and TV control.

The unit swiveled rapidly, its big missile laden arms reaching for the sky, and two tiny caps flipped open on the IR and TV sensor tubes. Moments later Samsonov had a real time TV image on an auxiliary screen and he was able to quickly designate targets and fire.

A full barrage released all four missiles on each robot arm, sixteen in all between the two units. It was much more firepower than they actually needed, but in the heat of a dire emergency with bombs raging down on them, Karpov took the most expedient measure possible and fired everything he had as ready ammo.

It saved the ship.

The Aichi D3A1 was the best dive bomber in service during the early years of the war. It had good speed in a dive, with adequate maneuverability in spite of the fixed, non-retractable landing gear, and it could deliver a 250kg bomb mounted on the main fuselage and two smaller 60kg bombs on the wings. As the plane attacked in a steep dive, a trapeze system flung the bomb away from the rotating propeller when released, and the Japanese had developed very good accuracy with the plane. It would end the war as the most successful Axis dive bomber against Allied shipping, killing sixteen warships in the mix of vessels sunk, including an aircraft carrier, the Hermes, three cruisers and twelve destroyers. Even fast agile ships could not easily evade the deadly high angle attack, which was extremely difficult for most gun systems to defeat—but not for missiles capable of vertical launch angles, as the Kashtan was.

The missiles ignited in a wash of white steamy smoke and danced into the sky above, locking on to any target within their arc of fire. The system could track only eight simultaneous targets, but eight was enough. Within seconds the sky overhead erupted with one explosion after another and the missiles found and killed the relatively slow planes with fragmentation warheads that would create a sphere of shrapnel upon detonation out to a five meter range. The air above the ship was soon a wild spray of shrapnel. Two kills…three…five…Then a another bomb fell just ahead of the ship and sent a wild spray of seawater over the bow. Kirov rolled as she ran over the detonation, her sharp prow cutting through the seething water.

Karpov’s mind raced. Killing the planes was not enough, he realized! The bombs may have already been released. “Samsonov! Gatling system on full automatic! Now!”

The snarl of the Gatling guns joined the cacophony of noise as the Kashtans flung thousands of rounds of 30mm shells from their heavy arms, the six barrels rotating rapidly within the long black pipe that housed them with an evil whirring sound, their muzzles spitting out enormous fiery jets of flame. Karpov was filling the sky above the ship with a lethal barrage of metal, and three falling bombs were hit and exploded high above the ship, one too close for comfort.

That accounted for six of the nine bombs on the planes in Lt. Commander Hayashi’s EII-3 Squadron. Two more died before they could be released, their brave pilots waiting too long as they sighted on the enemy ship beneath them. Yet it was bomb number nine that finally found its target and struck an avenging blow—Hayashi’s bomb, striking the ship and broiling up in thick black smoke and fire.

Kirov had finally been hit, but not by the 20mm rounds of a British Beaufighter this time, most passing harmlessly through the target that was not quite there.

This time it was a 250 kilogram bomb.

Part III ENGAGEMENT

“Although the concept of defense is parrying a blow and its characteristic feature is awaiting the blow, if we are really waging war, we must return the enemy’s blows…. Thus a defensive campaign can be fought with offensive battles… The defensive form of war is not a simple shield, but a shield made up of well-directed blows.”

~ Clausewitz, On War

Chapter 7

The bomb hit near the edge the aft deck, about fifty feet behind the number three 152mm battery, and abreast and below battery number two. It penetrated the upper deck, killing five men in and near a stairwell and then exploded, the force ripping the overhead deck apart and sending a blast of metal fragments, smoke and fire up into the air in a broiling column.

It was a dangerous place to be struck, as the underdeck magazines for two of the ship’s three 152mm batteries were only two bulkheads away, and the outermost barrier had been badly buckled. Kirov’s designers had provided 100mm armor plating around all munitions storage areas, and there was no immediate threat of secondary explosion. Fortunately, the attack had come from the other side of the ship and the angle of descent on the bomb actually saw it driving outward towards the exterior hull, and not inward, so most of the damage was in access corridors and the stair well area, though a fire started that could pose a real danger if not rapidly contained.

On the bridge they felt the ship shake with the explosion, and the Admiral’s eyes darkened with misgiving.