MNS Uinen - hunter-killer attack submarine
Off the coast of Erusea:The crew in
Uinen's control room watched the sonar plot as their torpedoes approached the Langenian subs. "Conn, sonar. Noisemakers detected bearing 085."
Captain Davids nodded. The Langenians had spotted the incoming torps. Their tracks on the sonar plot suddenly changed direction as the enemy subs began evasive maneuvers. Then the first torpedo hit with an audible BOOM, and the sonar report came in. "Contact lost: Sierra 2. Contact breaking up. Contacts lost: Sierra 1 and 3. Contacts faded."
That was unfortunate. The sound of the torpedoed sub was hiding her two nearest companions from
Uinen's sonar, which meant that the
Uinen couldn't use the guidance wires on her other torpedoes to redirect them onto their intended targets. The remaining three torpedoes would inevitably home in on the loudest contact around: the wreck of the sinking submarine. The waste of three perfectly good torpedoes was irksome to the captain, but there was nothing to be done about it.
Uinen needed to act quickly to take advantage of the confused sonar picture and their enemies' present state of disorder. "Fire control, shoot tubes one and two as ordered," he directed. "Torpedo room, cut the wires and begin reloading. Helm, come to heading 085. Increase speed to 25 knots. Make depth 600 feet."
As the last three torpedoes of her previous salvo exploded against the wreck of the Langenian sub,
Uinen fired her last two torpedo tubes. The torpedo room crew immediately cut all six wires (one per torpedo tube) and began the process of reloading. Reloading a torpedo tube on a submarine was a rather involved process, and loading all six of
Uinen's tubes could take up to 45 minutes; stealth and safety were more important for a sub than speed.
The two weapons
Uinen had just fired rushed off to port, away from the Langenian subs to starboard; a course
Uinen herself might be expected to take if she was intent on leaving the engagement. The first weapon was a
Mobile Submarine Simulator (MOSS), a decoy designed to perfectly mimic the active and passive sonar signatures of the launching submarine. The second was another Mk 48 torpedo that had been programmed to run straight after the MOSS for 2km, then turn to engage the fourth Langenian submarine, Sierra 4.
To the Langenians, it would look like the
Uinen was making her escape to the northwest, then after 2km fired a torpedo southwards toward Sierra 4. Meanwhile, the real
Uinen would have made a high-speed dash directly towards the sinking submarine - in the exact opposite direction from the MOSS, and increased her depth by a few hundred feet. The cacophony of over stressed metal, bursting bulkheads, in-rushing water, and out-rushing air from the sinking sub, combined with the noisemakers dropped by the other two Langenian boats would hide
Uinen's already near-silent movements from her remaining three opponents, and would make her completely undetectable while they lasted. Of course, it would also prevent the
Uinen from hearing anything her enemies were doing so long as she remained nearby, but she had a way around this.
With her maneuver complete,
Uinen now sat on the opposite side of the wrecked sub, with it to her port side and - if they'd continued on their previous course in order to chase the MOSS - with Sierras 1 and 3 further to port beyond it. Sierra 4 would also be to port, but further aft than the other two.
Uinen was only about 100 feet above the seabed, as the bottom here was at a moderate 700 feet.
Satisfied that his vessel was well positioned, Captain Davids turned his attention to the next matter at hand. "Launch ROV," he ordered. "Send it down to see if we can't pick up Sierra 4." (Sierra 4 would be easier to detect since it was further away from all the noise). On the
Uinen's underside, a small hangar quietly slid open and a remotely controlled UUV swam slowly out into the water. It was about the same size and shape as a torpedo, but equipped with more sensitive sonar systems instead of a warhead. Trailing the cable that connected it to the submarine, the UUV crept carefully away from the wreck until it was far enough from the noise to pick up the Langenians. The sound of noisemaker countermeasures from the direction of Sierra 4 indicated that she was trying to evade the torpedo that
Uinen had fired after the MOSS. Farther out, the sound of a pair of torpedoes - probably fired by Sierra 4 - could be heard headed away after the MOSS. Sierra 1 and 3 were harder to make out as they were closer to the sunken submarine, but their faint signatures appeared to chasing the MOSS as well.
By now,
Uinen had half her torpedoes reloaded, and Captain Davids decided to use them. The first two torpedoes swam out after Sierra 1 and Sierra 2. If those two subs were indeed chasing after
Uinen's MOSS as they seemed to be, then the torpedoes would be coming from directly in their baffles - the area behind a submarine where its sonar couldn't see due to the entire boat and all its machinery being in the way. If the two submarines didn't change course, there was a good chance neither boat would have any idea the torpedoes were coming until they hit. The third torpedo was sent after Sierra 4, just in case fighting one torpedo wasn't exciting enough for her.