It was 8 a.m. on a cold and drizzly day, eighteen hours after he’d been handed new orders in the drydock in Bremerton, when Captain Murray Wilson stepped into the headquarters of Commander, Submarine Forces. He was greeted immediately by Captain Rick Current, Admiral Andrea’s chief of staff, who escorted him to the admiral’s conference room, where the senior COMSUBFOR staff were already assembling for the morning meeting.
Current introduced the N-heads—Navy captains responsible for specific areas, such as N1 (manpower) and N3 (operations)—and they were joined by Admiral Bill Andrea, who took his seat at the head of the table.
Captain Dwayne Thomas, the COMSUBFOR operations officer, led the brief, explaining the situation: the Navy’s conclusion that USS Pittsburgh had been sunk by Kazan, the background on the Russian submariner’s daughter and the $2.5M payment for her treatment, plus the letter to his wife indicating he was planning something that would occur in about a week.
When the brief concluded, Admiral Andrea took over, directing his comments to Wilson. “As you can see, we need to locate Kazan and potentially neutralize her before her crew executes whatever they’ve got planned. You did an excellent job tracking down Kentucky a few years ago, and we’re looking at a similar effort here. My staff is at your disposal, as are all Atlantic Fleet ASW assets. We’ll have to work through COMSURFLANT and COMAIRLANT, as well as the numbered Fleets, but they’ll be expecting orders from us. Do you have any questions?”
Wilson had quite a few, but figured most would be answered after analyzing Kazan’s projected position and the Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) assets available. The meeting concluded, and Wilson followed Thomas into the operations center, where they examined a large display on the front wall showing the location of all Atlantic Fleet submarines.
Wilson asked Thomas, “Can you pull up all Atlantic Fleet ASW assets?”
“Certainly,” he replied, then relayed the request to the operations center watch officer.
The display updated, adding surface warships and maritime patrol aircraft—submarine hunter versions of Boeing’s 737 jetliner—armed with lightweight torpedoes.
Wilson focused first on the assets that were already at sea. There were five Atlantic Fleet submarines on deployment, although one was in the Persian Gulf with the Truman Carrier Strike Group, both on loan to Pacific Fleet. Four more submarines were underway in the local operating areas, giving Wilson eight submarines that could be immediately repositioned. Another eighteen were in port, most of which could get underway within twenty-four hours; deployment orders had been sent yesterday afternoon to all submarines not in deep maintenance.
The Surface Fleet was in a similar position, with only a portion of its ships at sea. In addition to the Truman CSG in the Persian Gulf, the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, fresh out of the shipyard after repairing the damage received during America’s war with China, was in the middle of a COMPTUEX—a pre-deployment training exercise with its escort ships—just off the East Coast.
The good news was that there were six squadrons of P-8A maritime patrol aircraft available for immediate employment.
Next, Wilson located the SURTASS ships, best described as mobile versions of the fixed SOSUS arrays mounted on the ocean floor, trailing towed arrays over a mile long. But there were only two ships in the Atlantic Ocean.
Wilson then directed the operations center watch officer to populate the display with NATO ASW assets. Unfortunately, Canada had no submarines underway and the British subs at sea were near Great Britain, well behind Kazan and on the wrong side of her most likely direction of travel, assuming she was headed toward the Mediterranean or the U.S. East Coast. There were a few NATO submarines in the Mediterranean Sea, mostly in the eastern sector near Syria, which would come in handy if Kazan was headed their way.
Given the forces immediately available, Wilson analyzed the scenario, reluctantly coming to a disappointing conclusion, which he explained to Thomas.
“The last datum we have for Kazan’s location is three days old. Even if we assume a speed no greater than ten knots, we’re dealing with a transit radius of over seven hundred miles. Any containment we establish at this point will be too porous; the arc is simply too long. We can’t get enough P-8As, submarines, and surface ships in place fast enough.”
Wilson added, “We’ll put together the best perimeter possible, but at this point, detecting Kazan is going to take some luck. In the meantime, let’s mobilize everything available. Send orders to surge all Atlantic Fleet ASW assets to sea. As soon as you can pull it together, I need a list of all deployable units, when they’ll get underway, and what port they’re deploying from.”
Wilson studied the operations center display as he planned ahead.
“Find out if we can get the Truman strike group back from PAC. If so, route her into the Med via the Suez Canal to deal with Kazan if that’s where she’s headed. If not, we’ll pull the strike group into the Atlantic to assist.
“Also ask PAC Fleet for as many P-8 squadrons as possible. Based on the Russian captain’s letter to his wife, we’re looking at a scenario where we’ll need the extra squadrons for only a week or two, so pry as many away from PAC as possible.
“Let’s get going. We need assets, and we need them at sea.”