Dangerous Ground

algorithm, they had passed Memphis about two thousand yards astern and they were now on her port quarter.

“Perfect, Mr. Mitchell! Now keep us on her tail,” encouraged Monroe.

“Aye, aye, sir! We are in the sweet spot and I intend to take up permanent residence.”

Monroe and Davidson watched as Jerry matched Memphis maneuver for maneuver for the next six minutes. Keeping a close eye on the target’s estimated course and speed, Jerry adroitly adjusted the Manta’s course and speed so that it maintained its relative position with respect to Memphis. Captain Hardy must be beside himself with frustration, thought Jerry. With the Manta still in his baffles, there was nothing the Captain could do. He couldn’t hear the Manta and — more important — he couldn’t simulate a torpedo shot on it. Jerry was in control of the situation, and Jerry knew that Hardy knew it as well. But all of a sudden, the small smile on Jerry’s face was replaced with a frown. Memphis had not executed a maneuver in over three minutes. Something was up.

“Mr. Monroe, sir, the Captain is up to something. He hasn’t maneuvered at all in the three plus minutes and I think he’s going to break, and break hard, soon.”

“Concur. Which way do you think he’ll go?” Monroe asked.

“He’ll go to the left. All of his past maneuvers, as small as they were, have been to the right. He’s going to go to the left in a major league way, I just know it!” exclaimed Jerry. “And when he does, I’ll go hard right, cross behind again, and settle in on the starboard side of the baffles.”

“Won’t that be risky? Our TMA solution is a little old,” questioned Davidson.

“Not really,” responded Jerry. “I’ve kept our relative position pretty constant, so the solution is still accurate and we haven’t closed the target all that much. That’s the whole point behind the lag pursuit maneuver. Furthermore, as soon as we see him commit to a left turn — and we will if he breaks hard — we start turning to the right and with our superior maneuverability we’ll finish our maneuver before he does.”

“Do we still have depth separation?” asked Monroe.

“I don’t know, sir. That’s hard to estimate. I think Memphis is a little deeper, but I can’t say how much.”

Monroe sat down and thought for a moment. He looked at his own notes and then the TMA solution. A smile slowly grew on his face. “If he turns left, Mr. Mitchell, execute a hard right turn!”

“Aye, aye, sir,” said Jerry. The three of them then sat there, glued to the sonar display, awaiting the first clue that Memphis was starting her turn. They didn’t have long to wait.

Within thirty seconds of Monroe’s decision, Memphis executed the hard left turn that Jerry had predicted. With almost lightning reflexes, Jerry simultaneously drove the Manta into a hard right turn and then eased off before they emerged from the starboard baffles. By the time Jerry finished fine-tuning, the Manta occupied the exact same position on Memphis’ starboard quarter.

“Sweeet,” muttered Davidson.

“Nicely done, Mr. Mitchell,” praised Monroe. “Now, before they can figure out what just happened, increase speed to fifteen knots. Davidson, prepare to go active.”

“Increase speed to fifteen knots, aye, sir,” replied Jerry.

With the added speed, the Manta broke from the starboard baffles. Waiting just a few seconds to let the maneuver’s effect sink in. Monroe ordered Davidson to go active on the bow array with four sharp pulses; meaning simply, “bang, you’re dead.”

“Touche, mon capitaine,” said Monroe triumphantly as he slapped both Jerry and Davidson on the back.

A couple of minutes later, the IMC announced, “Secure from battle stations. Secure from drill. Drill monitors muster in the wardroom for the critique.”

“Mr. Mitchell, you and your team recover the Manta and then join us in the wardroom,” ordered Monroe. “And a very well done to both of you.”

As Monroe headed forward, Davidson turned toward Jerry and said, “That was awesome, sir! You really handled the Manta well.”

“Thanks, Petty Officer Davidson. The funny thing is, the Manta felt a lot like an airplane. And I just fell back on my aviation training.”

“Well, sir, Mr. Adelman was never that good, and this was your first time with the real deal. Maybe that’s why the Navy sent you here for this mission. They knew you had the proper skills.”

Jerry laughed and responded sarcastically to Davidson’s naivete, “Somehow TM2, I don’t think I can attribute that kind of forethought to the senior leadership of the U.S. Navy. Now, let’s get the Manta back on board.”

As Davidson contacted Greer to begin the recovery procedure, Jerry looked up and noticed for the first time that all of the torpedoman’s mates were looking at him and Davidson. A few nodded their approval; Foster clearly made his feelings known by his glare. Jerry chose to ignore his senior chief’s disapproval and turned the Manta procedure book to the recovery section.

Ten minutes later, with the Manta firmly secured in its dock, Jerry headed forward toward the wardroom. With any luck, the critique would be almost over. Hardy was bound to be in a foul mood after Monroe’s lopsided victory over Memphis’ fire-control party. Turning the corner around the bulkhead that separated officers’ country from the rest of the boat, Jerry heard a loud and angry voice coming from the wardroom. He couldn’t make out all the words, but the voice was very familiar. The Captain was obviously beside himself with anger over this drill and he was making his displeasure known to one and all. Stopping by the door to the wardroom, Jerry took a deep breath and went in.

“It’s about time you showed up Mitchell. We’ve been waiting for you,” growled Hardy.

Inwardly Jerry groaned. Now he would have to endure the Captain’s wrath as each embarrassing moment was gone over in detail. Since there was nothing Jerry could do about it, might as well get it over with. “Sorry, sir, we were recovering the Manta and I wish to report that the vehicle is now secured.”

“Very well,” grumbled Hardy.

“Let’s continue with the critique, please,” remarked Young rather testily. “As you were saying, Mr. Monroe.”

Lieutenant Commander Monroe looked down at his notepad and picked up where he had let off. He described the maneuvers used during the exercise and how they were based on classic Russian SSN tactics. He then made several complimentary statements on Jerry’s ability to grasp the essence of the tactics and to employ them. Monroe even went so far as to say that Jerry’s previous aviation experience proved to be extremely valuable in this instance. Jerry watched as Hardy seemed to turn more and more crimson as the squadron staffer praised one of his officers. When they reached the point in drill when Memphis turned hard left, Bair piped up and asked, “Why did you turn hard right as we turned left? I don’t quite understand the rationale behind that action.”

Monroe motioned for Jerry to answer his XO. “Well, sir, we could have easily turned with Memphis, but in doing so we would have ended up in a disadvantaged position where you would have been able to shoot us. By turning right and crossing astern for the second time, we retained the position of advantage. We knew about where you were and that you were in our weapons envelope. But we were not in yours. When I saw the hard left break, I recognized the situation as being similar to what aviators call a ‘flat scissors’ and I maneuvered accordingly.”

“Are you saying you beat the crap out of us by using dogfighting tactics, mister?” demanded Bair.

“Uh, yes, yes, sir. I guess that is what I’m saying.”

Bair sat back in his chair and shook his head. “No wonder we couldn’t figure out what they were doing. We were expecting them to behave like submariners and planned our attack based on this assumption. But instead, they acted more like fighter pilots. And in this case, they actually had one.”

“Yes, XO, I agree!” Hardy said angrily. “And that is exactly why I object to this whole drill. How can we be expected to fight a small, highly maneuverable vehicle with traditional tactics and weapons?”

“Your point is well taken, Captain,” replied Young icily. “But the last time I heard, the CNO is encouraging exactly this kind of out-of-the-box thinking!” Rising, Young positioned himself so that everyone could hear him. “What we learned today from this exercise was not what we had intended. Instead of ending up with a traditional sub-on-sub encounter that would just test your fire-control party’s skills, we found that a highly maneuverable vehicle with a well-trained operator unexpectedly dominated the scenario. And I submit to