Chapter Thirty-Five: One Drumbeat of Energy

  July 6, 2015, Indian Navy created "world's first" again.

  At 0134, INS Vikrant was torpedoed by a submarine at 75°12′E, 7°34′N in the eastern part of the Eight Degree Channel and sank at 0219 after being hit by three heavy torpedoes. The first aircraft carrier built by the Indian Navy became the first aircraft carrier to be sunk in combat since World War II.

  Not a glorious "world's first".

  But the disaster has just begun.

  "Vikrant" is about thirty kilometers north of "Vikramaditya".

  When Patel was woken up by the staff from bed, he was still very angry. Upon hearing that "Vikrant" had been suddenly attacked and was sinking in a huge fire, Major General was instantly stunned.

  At 1:42, Patel arrived at the command center of the aircraft carrier.

  A massive fire erupted on the "Vikrant", illuminating the southern night sky, and voices were loud in the communication channels.

  Out of instinct, Patel first inquired about the enemy situation.

  There are no enemy warships on the surface of the sea nearby, nor are there any enemy planes in the sky. It must be a submarine; only a submarine could launch a sneak attack on the "Vikrant".

  Upon learning that the Vikrant had been hit by a torpedo and not a missile, Patel immediately ordered a concentrated search of the sea area within 10 to 25 km from the Vikrant. He then adjusted his orders, dispatching all anti-submarine forces to the southern flank of the Vikrant.

  Patel's reaction was not slow and deployment was also appropriate.

  If a submarine uses anti-ship missiles to attack an aircraft carrier, although it can launch missiles at hundreds or even thousands of kilometers away, it is difficult to achieve the effect of a sudden surprise attack. Anti-ship missiles are easily detected and may be shot down by air defense missiles and rapid-fire cannons. The "killing power" of the missile is also not as good as that of a torpedo, and it may expose the submarine's trajectory when breaking through the water.

  A submarine commander with great courage and meticulous mind will always use torpedoes as the main combat weapon.

  The range of a torpedo is much shorter than that of a missile; the maximum range of the US Navy's Mk 48 ADCAP mod 6AT torpedo is about fifty kilometers, and most 533mm torpedoes have ranges between twenty to forty kilometers. Because of their slower speed, the ideal attack distance for heavyweight anti-ship torpedoes is ten to twenty-five kilometers. If it gets too close, the submarine is likely to be detected by an antisubmarine warfare vessel.

  Theoretical analysis is simple, but actual operation is very complicated.

  Before entering the high-speed attack mode, the two tail streams of the homing torpedo had changed direction twice, and it was impossible to determine from which direction the torpedo came. The third acoustic homing torpedo chose the shortest route, and it was also impossible to determine the location of the submarine from its course.

  Patterson could only surmise that the submarine was south of Vikrant, otherwise it would not have been just Vikrant that was hit but also Vikramaditya.

  But this judgment is too " rough".

  Even if the search area is narrowed down to the south of "Vikrant", with a distance of 10-25 kilometers, there are still 1,650 square kilometers. The search area will increase at a rate proportional to the square of time. If no results can be obtained within an hour, it would be impossible to find that submarine forever. Even in the most ideal situation, where the submarine is stationary and all anti-submarine forces are deployed instantly, regional searches are conducted, and this task requires five anti-submarine patrol aircraft, or twenty-one anti-submarine helicopters, or thirteen anti-submarine warships, far exceeding the anti-submarine capabilities of the "Vikrant" aircraft carrier battle group, let alone two aircraft carrier battle groups.

  In his haste, Patel not only failed to consider anti-submarine tactics but also made a more serious mistake.

  At that time, he first thought of Pakistan's "Agosta 90B" type AIP conventional submarine.

  The submarines of the Pakistan Navy have always had as their primary task to launch a sneak attack on an Indian aircraft carrier. During the last Kashmir crisis, a Pakistani submarine sneaked into an Indian naval task force and "attacked" the INS Viraat with active sonar, causing chaos within the fleet.

  At 1:48, Patel dispatched an anti-submarine helicopter from the Vikramaditya carrier strike group.

  He then ordered the two Bangalor-class destroyers in the Vikramaditya carrier battle group to rescue the Vikrant, and put four anti-submarine warfare ships on high alert. He would not rest until that Pakistani submarine was found, and the safety of the Vikramaditya was assured.

  Patel was unaware that it was not a Pakistani submarine that had attacked INS Vikrant.

  The "Swordfish" did not leave and did not give up the opportunity to expand its gains.

  Under the cover of the hull rupture sounds from "Vikrant", the torpedo crew reloaded three torpedo tubes and flooded them with seawater. However, the noise generated by "Vikrant" also jammed the sonar on "Swordfish".

  "It can only be confirmed that there are several targets on the north side." The sonar operator became a key figure on the submarine, circling several bright spots on the screen with a watercolor pen. "These two approaching us are destroyers, likely to be 'Bangalore'-class destroyers. The several targets in the south are escort warships within the 'Vikrant' aircraft carrier battle group, searching outward. These few unclear targets in the north must be warships within the 'Vikramaditya' aircraft carrier battle group. Before the 'Vikrant' was hit, sonar detected the 'Vikramaditya' aircraft carrier, but later lost the target due to interference."

  "Has the submarine been found?"

  Sonar shook his head. "The performance of those Indian submarines is at that level, if they are near us, they will definitely be detected. However, it's not ruled out that there may be American submarines nearby."

  Hua Jianfeng nodded, what he wanted to ask was whether they had found an American submarine.

  The opportunity to expand our gains is right in front of us, but so are the dangers.

  Attacking the "Vikramaditya" under the eyes of more than a dozen Indian escort warships and more than a dozen anti-submarine helicopters would definitely involve great risk. However, what is even more threatening is the "New Hampshire", which has not appeared so far.

  Hit or not hit?

  Hua Jianfeng glanced at his deputy beside him.

  "There's no reason not to eat the fat meat that's already in your mouth, it's just a matter of how to swallow it."

  "Wire-guided anti-submarine mode, the torpedo approaches the target at a great depth and then switches to acoustic homing and wake-homing modes." The chief armorer made a suggestion. "The success rate of the attack will not be high, after all, we cannot determine which target is 'Vikramaditya'."

  "Employing passive voice self-guidance and selecting primary attack targets in tail flow self-guidance mode."

  Sheng Na's words made several officers cast surprised glances at him.

  "It's mentioned in the tactical manual, we just never practiced it before." Sheng Nan shrugged his shoulders, making others think he was ignorant.

  "That's what we'll do." Huajianfeng didn't hesitate, "Set the parameters for Torpedo 1 and Torpedo 2 to low-speed cruise mode. Set Torpedo 3 and Torpedo 4 to anti-submarine self-guided mode, pre-load fire control data. If we're going to do it, let's do it big, once and for all, and solve the problem with one blow."

  The outer covers of torpedo tubes No. 1 and No. 2 were opened again.

  As the high-pressure pump started up, two heavy torpedoes were pushed out of their tubes.

  Two "Bangalore"-class destroyers from the Vikramaditya aircraft carrier battle group approached at a speed of twenty-eight knots, and the huge self-noise masked the sound emitted by the torpedo. The hull sonar on the destroyer became deaf ears.

  Danger is quietly approaching the aircraft carrier "Vikramaditya".

  Fourteen minutes later, the two torpedoes would lose contact with the submarine and continue on their way under control of the inertial guidance system. Six minutes after that, the homing systems on the torpedoes would detect the aircraft carrier "Vikramaditya" and make a final dash for it.

  A dense explosion sound came from afar, it must be an anti-submarine warfare ship launching rocket depth charges.

  Hua Jianfeng's eyebrows twitched slightly, and a sense of foreboding rose from the bottom of his heart.

  A depth charge explosion would produce noise that would interfere with sonar on the warship, and Indian warships wouldn't randomly drop depth charges.

  Is an Indian warship moonlighting as a "whale catcher"?

  Hua Jianfeng was thinking about it when a familiar sound entered the boat.

  "Sonar contact, torpedo incoming!" Hua Jianfeng was shocked and immediately ordered, "Cut the torpedo guidance wire, dive 15 degrees down, rise 15 degrees up, full power ahead."

  "The Swordfish" dived into the vast depths of the ocean like a startled beast.

  "Torpedo MK48 ADCAP." Lao Jia Cheng reacted faster, "Damn it, American submarine, must be the sound of our torpedo launch was detected by the American submarine."

  Hua Jian nodded. "Calculate torpedo hit time."

  "One minute twenty-seven seconds." Le Jia Cheng took out his stopwatch. Although the computer screen displayed the time, he still trusted mechanical devices more.

  "Hard to port, torpedoes ready."

  "Chaff ready." The ordnance chief rushed to the side of the control platform, placing his finger on the button for launching chaff. "Chaff ready."

  "Listen to my command. Torpedo hit time."

  One minute and five seconds.

  In the faint tremble of Hua Jianfeng's sword, it seemed as if he was muttering something under his breath.

  "Fifty seconds!" Le Jia Cheng's eyes followed the direction of Hua Jianfeng's sword.

  "Hard to port, one third rudder. Depth?"

  "Thirty-five seconds!" Le Jia Cheng wiped away the sweat on his forehead. "Depth 488, still increasing."

  "Keep your head down and maintain speed!"

  "Twenty seconds!" Le Jia Cheng's voice began to tremble.

  "Keep moving forward, maintain speed." Hua Jianfeng's face was stern as he looked at the military supplies officer, "Don't be in a hurry, listen to my orders."

  "15 seconds!" Le Jia Cheng's hands began to tremble.

  All the officers in the command center looked at Hua Jianfeng, their lives were in the hands of the captain.

  "Ten seconds!" Le Jia Cheng almost shouted out loud.

  "Jamming shell..."

  "Eight seconds..." Yue Jia Cheng closed his eyes, and his life was left with only eight seconds.

  "Fire!"

  When he pressed the button to launch the interference bomb, the armorer almost used all his strength.

  "Hard to starboard," Huajianfeng stood up, "Twenty feet down, aft cabin blowdown, keep quiet!"

  In the "wall" of bubbles, the Swordfish dived at extreme speed. Decoy shells with very similar characteristic noise to the Swordfish were manufactured to produce a large number of bubbles and quickly floated towards the sea surface.

  "Five hundred twenty meters... five hundred eighty meters... six hundred forty meters..." Looking at the numbers on the depth gauge, Le Jia Cheng felt that one foot had already entered the Ghost Gate.

  The hull made a "creaking" sound, which was the sound of the pressure hull deforming under the squeeze of seawater.

  "Level heads, one-tenth power!" Hua Jian swept his gaze over the crowd, "Silence, everyone remain silent."

  The sonar pulse of the torpedo disappeared, but the danger has not passed. The MK48 ADCAP is one of the most advanced torpedoes in the world, after losing its target, it automatically switches to passive mode and searches for a new target again. As long as the fuel on the torpedo is not exhausted, it will not stop.

  There was dead silence inside the submarine, and the officers and men did not even dare to breathe loudly.

  "The Swordfish" stood at the Ghost Gate, in front of it was an endless abyss.