Chapter Fifty-Two: One Against Three

  E 65°47′, N 20°42′, in the northern part of the Arabian Sea.

  The "Tiger Shark" attack nuclear submarine with the hull number 410, after receiving orders from a communications satellite at periscope depth, dived again to a depth of three hundred and fifty meters.

  Inside the command center, Major Du Xinghua stared intently at the screen of the fire control computer.

  "Big Tiger Shark" is the sister ship of "Gun Octopus", Du Xinghua and Hua Jianfeng are also classmates at the submarine academy. The two men served together in the submarine force, promoted to senior officers together, participated in mid-term training together, and served on attack nuclear submarines together. For over a decade, Du Xinghua has always ranked second, never surpassing Hua Jianfeng.

  Du Xinghua's problem is not his ability, but his luck.

  Before graduating from the submarine academy, he developed acute appendicitis and missed the final exam by less than a tenth. During mid-term training, he was hospitalized for five days due to gallstones and lost again. Five years ago, when Hua Jianfeng made a big splash in the Indian Ocean, one of the loops of the "Tiger Shark" reactor had a malfunction and was overhauled in the dock.

  At critical moments, Du Xinghua always walks in bad luck.

  Du Xinghua never complained. He knew that sooner or later, good fortune would come to him and his fate would change with it.

  Ten days ago, Du Xinghua finally caught the tail of good luck.

  Belonging to the South Sea Fleet, "Tiger Shark" and "Squid Gun" sailed south together, entering the Indian Ocean through the Malacca Strait. As Du Xinghua and Liu Haifeng, who replaced Hua Jianfeng as captain of "Squid Gun", had guessed, they encountered two US Navy attack nuclear submarines as soon as they entered the Malacca Strait.

  According to plan, "Tiger Shark" was responsible for entangling the US submarine and covering up "Gun Octopus"'s entry into the Indian Ocean.

  After entering the Indian Ocean, the two "Los Angeles" seemed to favor the "Squid Gun", and did not look at the entangled "Tiger Dolphin".

  While "Gun Octopus" lured away two "Flower Thieves", "Tiger Dolphin" went solo.

  According to the combat plan, after shaking off the US submarine, "Tiger Shark" headed to the Arabian Sea, responsible for searching Indian submarines and assisting and covering Pakistani submarines.

  In the waters of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, "Tiger Shark" encountered a third American submarine.

  Still a "Los Angeles", Du Xinghua did not entangle with the US military, taking advantage of the excellent quiet performance of the "Tiger Shark" to shake off the American submarine and continue to advance towards the Arabian Sea.

  However, Du Xinghua's luck still hasn't turned for the better.

  When the "Swordfish" was dealing with the Indian aircraft carrier, the "Tiger Shark" was less than 250 kilometers away from the battlefield. If the "Tiger Shark" had arrived in time, even if it couldn't get any fat meat, it could have at least drunk a couple of mouthfuls of soup.

  At that time, Du Xinghua did not know what had happened ahead, otherwise he would have sighed again.

  Entering the Arabian Sea, "Tiger Shark" encountered US submarines several times without any conflict. The scheduled task also became a decoration, as Indian submarines were all hiding in the port and did not go out to perform combat missions. Pakistan's few submarines also hid in the coastal waters and had no intention of going south to deal with the Indian fleet.

  After wandering for several days, Du Xinghua finally waited for the opportunity he had been dreaming of.

  This is not an opportunity that can be obtained easily, but rather one that requires taking risks to get.

  The screen of the fire control computer clearly displayed three bright targets, three "Squid"-class conventional submarines. There were also two less obvious targets, which the computer analysis showed to be two US Navy "Los Angeles"-class attack nuclear submarines. These two targets were moving away and did not seem to want to stay and "watch the excitement".

  Although the "Tiger Shark" had created a record of one against five in previous actual combat exercises, the current situation was not very favorable for the "Tiger Shark". Firstly, the "Tiger Shark" only had two fire control channels and could only attack two "squids" at the same time. Secondly, three "squids" adopted the "wheel" tactic, advancing with a spiral route, and there was always one submarine in a position to attack the "Tiger Shark".

  The Indian submarine commander was quite skilled and managed to sneak up on the task force without forgetting to be vigilant for underwater threats.

  Du Xinghua glanced at his watch, 9:45. "What's today's date?"

  "July 15th." Deputy Captain Rong Kangjian walked over, "There are still twenty minutes until the scheduled battle time."

  Du Xinghua nodded and said, "The Indian submarine is still 150 kilometers away from the special mixed fleet. Maybe they didn't plan to use torpedoes to sneak attack the air defense destroyer at all."

  "Why don't you wait a little longer then?"

  The heroes see eye to eye, and both of them reveal a faint smile.

  The main weapons used by submarines to attack surface warships are mainly two types: one is heavy torpedoes and the other is anti-ship missiles. Torpedoes have great power, strong destructive power, and good concealment, but there is a problem of short range. Even the maximum range of electric torpedoes customized for "Swordfish" is only tens of kilometers. The range of anti-ship missiles is much farther than that of torpedoes, with the farthest reaching hundreds of kilometers.

  According to the military intelligence agency, in addition to being equipped with French-made Exocet anti-ship missiles, the "Squid"-class conventional submarines are also equipped with Russian "Club" anti-ship missiles. The maximum range of this missile is 220 kilometers, posing a huge threat to warships.

  Because the waterproof pressure hulls that carry missiles have limited capacity, submarines can only launch anti-ship missiles at periscope depth. The three "squids" want to launch missiles and must float up, unable to continue to maintain a mutually covered posture, giving the "Tiger Shark" an opportunity to counterattack.

  "Captain, targets one and two are surfacing!" The sonar chief broke the silence.

  Du Xinghua smiled coldly and immediately said: "The entire boat enters combat status, rising to a depth of 240 meters."

  The red light flickered on and more than a hundred crew members rushed to their battle stations at top speed.

  "Torpedo number one, autonomous attack on target number one. Torpedoes two and three, wire-guided mode, targeting targets one and two respectively." Du Xinghua gave orders quickly, "Set torpedo number four to target number three's data. Flood the torpedo tubes, prepare to open the front cover."

  "Torpedo tube flooding, prepare to open the front cover!" The armorer relayed the order to the sailors in the torpedo room.

  "Captain, targets one and two have reached a depth of fifty meters and are still rising."

  "Has target number three caught up?" Du Xinghua glanced at the fire control computer screen placed horizontally. The two "squids" were just ahead and above, about 5,500 meters away, and were about to reach the depth of launching missiles.

  "Negative. Target three is still at two hundred eighty meters depth, just off our port bow."

  Du Xinghua glanced at his partner beside him, hesitated for a moment, and said: "Open the front cover, launch the torpedo!"

  "Boom... boom... boom" three times, three heavy torpedoes shot out of the launch tube.

  Torpedo number one sped towards the left-hand "squid" at its top speed of seventy knots from the start, while torpedoes two and three approached their target at a silent forty-five knots.

  To prevent Indian submarines from launching missiles, Du Xinghua had to make a move ahead of time.

  "Captain, targets one and two are diving rapidly."

  "Never mind them, keep a close eye on target number three." Deputy Director Rong Kangjian helped Du Xinghua remind Sheng Nalong.

  Against conventional submarines, the single-shot kill probability of heavy electric torpedoes is as high as 90%, and the double-shot kill probability reaches 99%. Two "squids" will not escape the "devil's palm" of three heavy torpedoes unless they grow wings and fly out of the water.

  "Target number three is accelerating and turning towards our left flank."

  "Trying to take an advantageous position." Rong Kangjian glanced at his partner.

  "Is it possible?" Du Xinghua sneered, "A San is too arrogant, actually competing with us in speed."

  "Perhaps they took us for a routine Pakistani submarine."

  "Captain, target number three is approaching at high speed."

  "Countdown." Du Xinghua glanced at his watch. "First take out the two ships in front, then deal with target number three."

  The third "squid" passed the "Tiger Shark" on the left at a speed of 20 knots, probably hoping to get behind the "Tiger Shark" and launch torpedoes. The "Squid" was not the most advanced conventional submarine, with very limited length of passive sonar array, unable to provide accurate target information for torpedoes, and had to use active sonar to calculate firing data before attacking. Submarines are not fighter planes, high-speed turns take a lot of time. It's hard to aim the bow at the "Tiger Shark" in an instant.

  "Thirty seconds!" Rong Kangjian let out a long breath. Ten more seconds and the "Squid"'s active sonar would be able to illuminate the "Tiger Dolphin".

  "Captain, decoys launched for targets one and two."

  "Twenty-five seconds!"

  "Torpedoes two and three, prepare to switch to autonomous attack mode." Du Xinghua stood up, counted silently for a moment, "Cut the guidance wire. Full rudder left, full power ahead, let Ah San see our speed!"

  Before cutting the guide wire, Torpedo No. 2 and Torpedo No. 3 passed through the decoy-made bubble zone and re-locked onto the target.

  Just as the third "Octopus" was about to launch its attack, the "Tiger Shark" left its active sonar illumination zone and sped around to the rear of the third "Octopus". About two minutes later, two dull explosions were heard from outside the boat.

  "Captain, targets one and two have disappeared."

  Rong Kangjian let out a soft sigh and looked over at his partner.

  "Torpedoes one and four set target data, autonomous attack mode." Du Xinghua sat down, "Flood torpedo tubes, open forward hatch, launch!"

  Two heavyweight torpedoes immediately pursued the target at a speed of seventy knots after leaving the launching tube.

  It seemed to know it couldn't escape, the third "squid" gave up its counterattack and rushed towards the surface at top speed. The "squid" is not a "flying fish", nor is a submarine an airplane, even if it surfaces, it can't escape the range of torpedoes.

  When the third explosion sounded, Du Xinghua finally stood up.

  As the explosion faded away, the sea returned to calmness.

  This was a fight without any fairness to speak of, like a 21st-century advanced fighter jet taking on a World War II-era piston fighter plane, with no suspense from the very beginning.

  "Captain, there is a fleet of ships in the southeast direction."

  "Western Fleet of India." Rong Kangjian immediately added a sentence.

  "How far?" Du Xinghua got excited again. Indeed, they had good luck, having just sunk three "squids", and now they encountered an even bigger prey.

  "One hundred and fifty kilometers, exceeding the maximum range of a torpedo."

  Du Xinghua was taken aback for a moment, then immediately glanced at his watch. It was exactly 10 o'clock, and the sea battle was about to begin.

  "It's definitely too late, can only use missiles."

  "Load the four torpedo tubes with anti-ship missiles, rise to periscope depth." Du Xinghua didn't hesitate, he also said to his deputy, "Send a message via communication buoy, let General Lin feel at ease in dealing with the Indian Western Fleet."

  The "Tiger Shark" quickly surfaced and the sonar buoy was also immediately deployed.

  ****

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