Commander Buglione breathed a sigh of relief. They’d been lucky. The Russian captain had led them toward the iceberg, then shifted to a quieter machinery lineup so Pittsburgh wouldn’t notice its turn away. He had also increased speed, forcing Pittsburgh to do the same to keep up, so the unique iceberg fizzing was masked by the flow of turbulent water past the submarine’s acoustic sensors. The Russian captain had set a deadly trap, and it could have ended with Pittsburgh on the bottom of the Barents Sea.
That bastard!
The Russian captain had known all along that he was being trailed and had waited for an opportunity to exploit that knowledge. The submarine and its crew were obviously quite capable and its captain very experienced. The latter didn’t surprise Buglione; the Russian Navy would not have placed a novice in command of Kazan.
As Pittsburgh settled out at four hundred feet, Buglione focused on finding Kazan. It had disappeared from the sonar screens.
“Sonar, Conn. Report all contacts.”
“Conn, Sonar. Hold no contacts.”
That wasn’t surprising. Pittsburgh was on the opposite side of the iceberg from Kazan, which had obviously turned away shortly after they lost contact. But which direction had it gone?
Buglione maneuvered Pittsburgh around the iceberg then queried Sonar again.
Still no contacts.
He had no idea where the Russian submarine had gone, and the probability of regaining Kazan with passive sensors was low. However, there was no need to remain covert. Kazan’s crew knew an American submarine had been trailing them. Using active sonar wouldn’t tell the Russians anything they didn’t already know.
Buglione ran the calculations in his head. They had lost Kazan fifteen minutes ago, and assuming she was evading at ten knots from a starting range of five thousand yards, Kazan would be about ten thousand yards away.
“Sonar, Conn,” Buglione called out, “Transmit MFA Omni, ten-thousand-yard range scale.”
Sonar acknowledged the order to transmit Mid-Frequency Active, Omni-directional, setting the system to analyze returns in a band centered at ten thousand yards. Pittsburgh’s active sonar system would send pulses in a circular arc, sweeping the ocean around them.
It took only a few seconds for Sonar to complete the lineup, and the Sonar Supervisor reported, “Conn, Sonar. Ready to transmit MFA Omni, ten-thousand-yard range scale.”
Buglione ordered, “Transmit.”
“Command Post, Hydroacoustic. Receiving active sonar on a bearing of zero-nine-zero, designated Hydroacoustic six.”
Plecas picked up the microphone beside the navigation table. “Hydroacoustic, Captain. Is the active pulse repeating?”
“Captain, Hydroacoustic. Yes.”
“Send Hydroacoustic six to fire control.”
Hydroacoustic acknowledged, and Plecas moved behind the fire control consoles as Senior Michman Topolski determined a solution.
“Use a range of ten thousand yards,” Plecas directed.
Topolski dialed in the ordered range, then matched bearing rate. “Hydroacoustic six is on course one-eight-zero, ten knots.”
Plecas checked the geographic display on the adjacent console. The American submarine was traveling south while Kazan headed west, steadily opening range. They were already on an excellent course, with Kazan’s stern pointing directly at the American submarine—an aspect unlikely to generate a return ping strong enough to be detected by the American sonar at the current range.
Whether Kazan was detected would be evident by the American submarine’s reaction. Plecas monitored the contact solution. The American submarine kept pinging, holding steady on its southerly course, with no change in speed. It had not detected Kazan.
Once Plecas was convinced Kazan was beyond the range of the American submarine’s acoustic sensors, he returned propulsion to its normal lineup.
“Watch Officer. Shift propulsion to the main engines and increase speed to ahead full.”
They had been pinging for thirty minutes when Buglione secured the active sonar. The Russian submarine was too far away to generate a sufficient sonar return. His only chance now was to close the distance and hope to regain Kazan on Pittsburgh’s sensors. But it was a big ocean and Kazan could have gone almost anywhere, and the odds of regaining trail on the Russian submarine were low. Fortunately, Pittsburgh wasn’t the only asset available.
“XO.” Buglione summoned his Executive Officer, who joined him at the navigation table. “Draft a message to CTF-69, advising them we picked up Kazan entering Kola Bay and lost track of her at our current location. Request follow-on tasking.”
Lieutenant Commander Schwartz acknowledged and entered the Radio Room to draft a message to their operational commander. The message was drafted and Buglione reviewed it, releasing it for transmission.
“Officer of the Deck, prepare to proceed to periscope depth. We have one outgoing.”
Two hours later, after transmitting the message and descending to 150 feet, Pittsburgh returned to periscope depth to download the latest round of messages, which included a new operational order for Pittsburgh, plus related directives. COMSUBPAC had been alerted to the possibility Kazan was undergoing an interfleet transfer, to ensure assets were available to detect and trail the Russian submarine if it appeared in the Pacific Ocean. Of higher concern was the possibility Kazan was headed into the Atlantic Ocean, en route to either a Mediterranean Sea deployment or a patrol off the East Coast of the United States.
Undersea Surveillance Command, which monitored the SOSUS arrays on the ocean bottom as well as the data collected by SURTASS ships with their deployable towed arrays, had been notified, and all paths through the GIUK Gap would be closely monitored. Additionally, two submarines would be stationed near the GIUK Gap exits to resume trail once Kazan was regained by SOSUS arrays.
USS Boise, currently in transit across the Atlantic Ocean to relieve Pittsburgh on its Northern Run, would take station between Iceland and the UK to cover the southern routes through the GIUK Gap, while Pittsburgh was being repositioned between Greenland and Iceland to cover the northern routes. Of course, that meant Pittsburgh needed to reach the GIUK Gap before Kazan. Considering Pittsburgh’s maximum speed and that Kazan would likely be traveling at no higher than ahead full, that would not be a problem.
“Helm, ahead flank,” Buglione ordered. “Left full rudder, steady course three-zero-zero.”
Assuming Kazan was headed west, Buglione intended to take Pittsburgh on an arc around the Russian submarine, hopefully transiting far enough away from Kazan that the Russian crew wouldn’t detect Pittsburgh repositioning ahead of it.
Buglione was confident Kazan would not escape into the Atlantic Ocean. At least, not without an American submarine trailing it.