The Chinese had been loitering here, running silently on their batteries, for seventeen hours, keeping their depth shallow at 45 feet and their ears open. The captain was waiting for the Americans to walk into his trap.
After seventeen hours, however, the captain of the Kilo grew impatient. He'd had enough of this waiting. Slowly the Kilo pulled out of its hiding spot and began to pick up speed. Its captain had decided to make a run at six knots, slowly and quietly circling Discovery Great Reef, searching for any American naval vessels.
As soon as the Kilo moved, it lost its protection against American sonars, and Cheyenne heard it.
'Conn, sonar, we just reacquired Master 48. It's a Kilo, single six-bladed screw. It just increased speed to six knots and it's heading north.'
A short time later a BSY-1 operator reported the Kilo's range, and Mack knew Cheyenne was in trouble. The Chinese submarine was only 11,000 yards away, which meant that Mack had unknowingly brought Cheyenne well within weapons range of the Chinese Kilo and her TEST-71 homing torpedoes.
'Make tubes one and two ready,' Mack ordered. 'But do not open the outer doors! He emphasized that. They were too close, and he didn't want to give the Kilo any chance of detecting their location.
'Make tubes one and two ready but do not open the outer doors, aye, sir.'
Mack had a problem. He had the drop on the Kilo, but he didn't have much maneuvering room. If the Kilo got off a return shot, Cheyenne could be in trouble.
And that was the least of his worries. His bigger problem was his lack of intel. Were there other Chinese submarines out there? Naval intelligence said no-but they'd missed one already. Who was to say they hadn't missed more?
This was a problem because he would give away his position as soon as he fired on the Kilo-and even if that submarine didn't fire back, there could be others hiding in the shallow water waiting to pounce.
Captain Mackey ordered Cheyenne rigged for ultraquiet. He wanted every effort made to ensure that nothing alerted the Kilo to their location. Word was quickly passed to all compartments over the sound powered phones. Non-vital equipment was quickly secured. The crew whispered when they spoke, wondering what would be next.
On board the Chinese submarine, the captain was growing frustrated. He was assigned to keep watch for American submarines, but he knew that he would never hear them unless they were close enough to fire their Mk 48s. Even under ideal circumstances his passive sonar was never up to par with the American BSY-I system, but in these shallow waters his Russian passive sonar performance was even worse.
Frustrated, he ordered his sonar room to use their active sonar and ping the area, hoping to even out the playing field and get a better fix on his surroundings. He had no idea that the USS Cheyenne was attempting to close in on his position.
'Conn, sonar, the Kilo just went active on its fire-control sonar. He painted the entire area for us.'
Mack knew immediately that this was good news as well as bad. It was bad because the Kilo now knew where Cheyenne was and had also received a firing solution. The good news, however, was that the active ping had given the same data to Cheyenne. Even more important, that one ping had lit up the murky waters of Discovery Great Reef like a flashlight. Thanks to that ping, Mack now knew that the Chinese Kilo was all alone.
Mack had the upper hand, but he wouldn't have it for long. He had to act fast-and act first.
He initiated the firing point procedures to attack the Kilo, Master 48. 'Open the outer doors on tubes one and two,' ordered Mack.
'Open the outer doors on tubes one and two, aye, sir.'
'Match sonar bearings and shoot tubes one and two.'
'Match sonar bearings and shoot tubes one and two, aye, sir.'
Cheyenne'5 torpedo tube muzzle doors opened and two Mk 48 ADCAPs knifed through the murky water toward the enemy submarine.
On board the lone Chinese Kilo, the captain was furious with himself. He had been tasked with waiting quietly for any American target, but he had lost his patience, and it had cost him.
He would have liked to blame it on timing and bad luck-that American submarine showing up just when he decided to take a stroll around the reef was unbelievably bad luck-but he knew he couldn't shrug it off that easily. After all, he had no idea how long the Americans had been out there. No, the simple truth was he'd made a mistake. Now he could only hope that the American captain would make one, too.
That hope died almost immediately. He had barely formed the thought when his sonar room alerted him to their discovery. The American captain had not made a mistake. He'd beaten the Chinese captain to the punch, launching not one but two deadly ADCAP torpedoes before the Kilo had even gotten their tubes ready.
Within minutes the two Mk 48s had acquired the Kilo and their wires were cut. The Mk 48s were on their own as they entered the terminal phase of their 'flight.'
The Chinese submarine launched a series of noise-makers, one after another, and began twisting through the shallow water in an effort to decoy the two torpedoes. It was no use, though. The Kilo had no more room to maneuver than Cheyenne did, and no time to run.
The Mk 48s were now using their powerful active seekers and they simply ignored the noisemakers. They stayed with the Kilo as it tried to evade.
Within minutes, two nearly simultaneous explosions announced to Cheyenne's crew that their weapons had found their mark. The two Mk 48s had impacted, one next to the other, into the port side of the Kilo.
The explosion caused the Chinese boat to split in half after both sides had filled with water. Cheyenne had destroyed another boat-and not just any submarine. This was another Kilo, the pride of the Chinese navy.
'Conn, sonar, I don't hear anything else in the area,' the sonar supervisor reported to the captain after the situation was under control.
'It looks like this area has been 'deloused,'' the captain said. 'I don't think that there are any other vessels operating in the area, but just to make sure let's make a quick check around and then head to our second search area.'
Battle stations and the rig for ultraquiet were secured, and the reconnoiter around the reef came up empty. Cheyenne turned up no signs that there was a submarine depot operating in this locality. There was also no sonar indication of any other submarines that may have been operating with the Kilo.
Mack was not surprised, but he couldn't help feeling a little relieved. 'Plot a new course for Cuarteron Reef, search area 2, that takes us outside this shallow water,' Captain Mackey said to the navigator.
'Aye, Captain, We've already begun to plot the course,' the navigator replied.
Discovery Great Reef was close to Cuarteron Reef, but the trip itself would take several hours. Mack could have covered it in far less time, but he wanted to remain silent and chose to keep Cheyenne's speed between five and ten knots. Once again, Mack was frustrated with his passive sonar performance in these shallow waters, but he was not going to risk giving away his position, so he kept Cheyenne quiet and hoped that if something was out there they would hear it.
As Cheyenne approached closer to the abandoned oil rig, Mack got more photographs of the oil platform. Less than three months ago, this area had been crowded with oil workers who were attempting to extract oil from the bottom of the islands. Now, however, there was not a soul on the rig, and the neighboring islands were completely occupied by Chinese troops who would have loved to attack Cheyenne if given the chance. But Mack wasn't about to give them that chance. Not if he could help it, anyway.
'Sonar, conn, have you picked up any contacts yet?' Mack asked of the sonar supervisor.
