Chapter 23: Capture by Hand

  If the most mysterious "role" in the fourth Indo-Pakistani War is to be selected, the special forces commanded by Lu Chengwen, the land aviation test troops led by Kong Zhihao, the naval aviation test troops where Liang Guoxiang was located, and the air force test troops will all compete with the submarine "Swordfish" for the "leading role"; if the "role" that gained the most is to be selected, it must be the submarine "Swordfish".

  The submarine left Yulin Port and entered the deep water channel before Hua Jianfeng and Yue Jiacheng opened the command file that had been placed in the safe beforehand.

  The "Swordfish" then headed south at a top speed of 27 knots, and only slowed down to 16 knots after reaching the waters south of the Natuna Islands, following a VLCC supertanker from Guangzhou to Abu Dhabi into the Indian Ocean through the Sunda Strait.

  Choosing Sunda Strait instead of Malacca Strait was mainly to avoid US Navy submarines.

  The operation of the "Swordfish" was top-secret, even the existence of the "Swordfish" itself was top-secret. After the Indo-Pakistani crisis broke out, the aircraft carrier USS Washington entered Singapore on a temporary anchorage, and several attack nuclear submarines of the Seventh Fleet also entered the Indian Ocean.

  The US would certainly think that Chinese Navy will send submarines to Indian Ocean to monitor Indian Navy.

  The US Navy submarine will inevitably be stationed in the Strait of Malacca, waiting for Chinese submarines to fall into their trap. As long as China participates in the war, the United States will inform the Indian Navy of the activities of Chinese submarines and guide the Indian anti-submarine forces to surround and attack Chinese submarines, or even personally sink them.

  Hua Jianfeng couldn't take risks, so "Swordfish" set off first, in order to lay down a hidden chess piece ahead of time on the Indian Ocean.

  After entering the Indian Ocean, "Swordfish" turned north and passed west of the Andaman-Nicobar Islands, arriving off Rambilli Submarine Base on July 1. After selecting a hiding spot, "Swordfish" slowed to six knots and deployed a 1500-meter towed linear array sonar.

  Because "Swordfish" had too short a fixed sonar array on her sides, she had to use towed sonars.

  If there were other options, Hu Jianfeng would not use towed array sonar. After using the towed array sonar, the submarine's speed must be kept between 6 and 12 knots, and high-intensity maneuvers cannot be performed. If you need to chase enemy submarines or evade enemy submarines, you must retrieve or cut off the towed array sonar. In general, no submarine captain likes to use towed array sonar in actual combat.

  Of course, the excellent performance of towed array sonar is beyond doubt.

  The "Swordfish" lay in wait about fifty-five miles southeast of Ramree, and through towed sonar, could clearly hear the ships entering and leaving the base, as well as the sounds emitted by the warships, and accurately locate them. Of course, Indian submarines also couldn't slip under the "ears" of the "Swordfish".

  In just one day, "Swordfish" detected six submarines in succession.

  Two 209s, two Kilo-class 877s, and two Squids. Huajianfeng had no interest in these "small shrimps". Out of professional instinct, Huajianfeng let the sonar test the Squid's stealth performance for a long time, finding that the French propaganda was greatly exaggerated. At a distance of one hundred twenty kilometers, the Swordfish's towed sonar could intercept the noise emitted by the Squid and conduct comparative analysis. From this, it can be calculated that when the Squid is propelled by the AIP system produced by D company, the noise is at least 115 decibels, rather than the 95 decibels claimed by the French.

  Indian submarines collectively set out, attracting Hu Jianfeng's high attention.

  After dark, he brought the submarine up to periscope depth in hopes of receiving a message from headquarters. But he waited all night in vain. It wasn't until dawn that they received definite word: India and Pakistan were about to go to war, and they were to search out and shadow the "Avenger", a nuclear-powered attack submarine.

  Upon receiving the order, Huajian Feng immediately ordered the "Swordfish" to dive down to a depth of 250 meters.

  At the time, he could not confirm whether the "killer" was in the base. Nuclear submarines can operate at sea for more than 45 days, and after the outbreak of the Indo-Pakistani crisis, the "Killer", which served as a strategic nuclear deterrent force, may have left the submarine base and entered the Bay of Bengal.

  With the "instinct" he learned from Lu Chengwen, Hua Jianfeng felt that the "Interceptor" was nearby.

  Of course, this is by no means "intuition" in a narrow sense.

  The "Arihant" is India's first indigenous nuclear submarine, with a design based on the Soviet Navy's Charlie-1 class attack submarines. To provide strategic deterrence capability, twelve vertical missile launch tubes were installed in the hull behind the command center of the "Arihant". With a range of only 1500 km, the "tactical ballistic missiles" make it difficult for the "Arihant" to complete its strategic nuclear deterrence mission. This awkward design makes the "Arihant" an oddity that is neither capable of exerting deterrent effects like a strategic nuclear submarine nor executing tactical missions like an attack submarine.

  To address this issue, the sister ship of "Killer" - "Fighter" became an experimental nuclear submarine.

  The fate of the "Killer" did not go well, after being put into service at the end of 2011, it took three years to barely form a combat force, and then entered Lambili to perform combat readiness patrols. In the following year and a half, the Chinese Navy's attack nuclear submarine only encountered the "Killer" once, in an encounter area near Lambili. Intelligence from other channels also proved that after the "Killer" was formally put into service, it only performed one combat readiness patrol mission, lasting less than twenty days, with activity areas near the base.

  Such a nuclear submarine is nothing more than an expensive "iron vase".

  Hua Jianfeng had good reason to believe that the "Jianjiji" would not leave Lambeelee, and even if it went out to sea for combat readiness patrols, it would not be far from Lambeelee.

  Patience was soon rewarded.

  At 10:00, about half an hour before India announced the launch of a self-defense counterattack, the sonar operator on board the "Swordfish" detected a strange noise. When the computer judged that the source of the noise was 170 kilometers away, Hua Jianfeng couldn't believe it. It wasn't until after completing the noise data comparison and confirming that it was the "Destroyer" that Hua Jianfeng had to believe that India's first nuclear submarine was indeed a "loudmouth".

  Sneaking up on the "Aircraft Carrier Killer" at the time, Hua Jianfeng received a combat order from the General Staff Department.

  Without hesitation, he ordered the recovery of the towed sonar and released a communication buoy. The "Swordfish" accelerated to sixteen knots, heading towards the "Killer".

  At the time, "Killer" was northeast of "Swordfish", heading towards Lambili.

  It can be inferred that the "Aircraft Carrier" was indeed on a combat readiness patrol mission. If China were to launch a large-scale attack on India with weapons of mass destruction, the "Aircraft Carrier" would use ballistic missiles carrying nuclear warheads to attack major cities in southwestern China.

  Just then, the "Jianjizhe" returned to Rambili, leaving Hua Jianfeng somewhat puzzled.

  Was Swordfish's trail discovered by Avenger?

  The "Killer Whale" had a noise level of one hundred and thirty-seven decibels, while the "Swordfish" was less than ninety decibels. Just like someone in a noisy dance hall, it's hard to hear the conversation next to you. The self-noise of the "Killer Whale" was enough to drown out the noise emitted by other submarines.

  Hua Jianfeng had no choice but to believe that Indian submarine personnel did not have any confidence in their own submarines.

  "The Killer" must have wanted to return to the waters near Ramree Island, operating under the cover of shore-based anti-submarine aircraft and small anti-submarine ships.

  Hua Jianfeng didn't mind this.

  In the western Bay of Bengal, there is a warm current from north to south. The "Swordfish" was quiet enough. Even if it was attacked by Indian shore-based anti-submarine forces, it could quickly dive under the warm current and escape the search range of Indian anti-submarine aircraft with its excellent stealth performance and high-speed navigation capabilities.

  Of course, the "Jiaolong" must be sunk before this.

  At around 1240, the bow-mounted active/passive sonar of "Swordfish" locked onto "Avenger", fifty-five kilometers away.

  Hua Jianfeng set the firing data for three torpedoes at once, leaving only one torpedo for self-defense. Any submarine commander would leave at least one torpedo when attacking a target, in case of unexpected situations. In the vast ocean, who can be sure there are no other submarines nearby? If attacked by another submarine while attacking an enemy ship, having that one self-defense torpedo could decide life or death.

  At 13:20, with a distance of 40 kilometers shortened, "Swordfish" launched two wire-guided torpedoes first.

  The two torpedoes were set to run at a speed of forty-five knots. At this speed, the noise emitted by the torpedo was less than one hundred decibels. With the self-noise level of the "Killer", when the torpedo approached within fifteen hundred meters, it could be detected. The minimum self-guided distance for heavy anti-submarine torpedoes is two thousand meters. By then, what the sonar soldiers on board the "Killer" heard was not the noise emitted by the torpedo during its run, but the pinging sound emitted by the attack sonar.

  Hua Jianfeng did not intend to give his opponent any chance, after launching two torpedoes, he put the third torpedo in a state that could be launched at any time, and chose the seventy-knot autonomous attack mode. If the first two torpedoes missed, he would immediately launch the third torpedo.

  In fact, Hua Jianfeng's preparation was a bit redundant.

  Fourteen minutes later, the guide wires of both torpedoes automatically dropped off because the total length of the guide wire was only twenty kilometers.

  Next, the torpedo will approach the target along a predetermined course under the control of an inertial guidance system.

  Thirteen minutes later, the torpedo's active sonar activated.

  In just fifteen seconds, the torpedo's sonar detected the "Killer" nuclear submarine two thousand meters away. Immediately, the torpedo switched to high-speed mode, and its speed quickly increased to seventy knots.

  By this time, the "Avenger" with a maximum speed of only 24 knots was doomed. In the face of two heavy torpedo attacks and a reaction time of less than 80 seconds, not to mention the "Avenger", even the "Virginia" would have an escape probability of no more than 4%.

  13:49, "Swordfish" sonar picked up two explosions and the sound of a hull breach.

  The sound of the boat's hull cracking gradually disappeared, and the noise of the "Jianjizhe" also completely disappeared.

  Hua Jianfeng didn't rush to celebrate the victory, after releasing the communication buoy, "Swordfish" turned around and dived at full speed to a maximum safe cruising depth of 560 meters, while increasing its speed to 27 knots.

  Must leave this sea area before India's anti-submarine aircraft arrive, the farther the better.

  ****

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