Onboard HMS Daring, Taiwan Strait
WHEN THE CALL came through to the bridge from the flight deck it was as if some unseen button had been pressed and the machinery of naval warfare began whirring into gear. Addressing those onboard who needed to know, the Officer of the Watch made his announcement on the command open line, the ship’s main internal comms link for all the key players, from the Commanding Officer down.
‘Principal Warfare Officer, Officer of the Watch,’ he said. ‘Periscope sighted bearing 115.’ There was no doubt in his mind as to who owned the submarine that was tailing them just outside Taiwan’s territorial waters. The Captain would need to get on the secure voice net immediately to CTG, the Task Group Commander, a US Navy rear admiral onboard one of the new guided missile destroyers. He would also have to notify the UK’s Permanent Joint Headquarters at Northwood. They both needed to know that the Task Group was under hostile surveillance from the People’s Liberation Army Navy. The fact that the sub was at periscope depth indicated to everyone that she was most likely to be a conventional diesel electric boat, rather than a nuclear-powered one. Conventional subs needed to come to periscope depth more frequently to charge their batteries, a process known in the Navy as ‘snorting’. But she was no less a threat and Daring needed to react accordingly.
Within two minutes the lookouts on deck had confirmed the sighting, with an alarming new development. There was not just one periscope following them, but two, adjacent to each other. The larger of the two was the search periscope, the one first spotted by a member of the Wildcat helicopter crew. But now there was a second: the attack scope.
‘Officer of the Watch – PWO … Come hard right 180,’ ordered the Principal Warfare Officer.
By now the ops team and sonar operators were all scanning along the bearing, searching for the rogue sub. Radar got there first.
‘Radar contact bearing 095 range 1.5 miles,’ came the report. Then almost immediately the lookouts on deck reported that the mast had vanished: the sub was going deep. Now, with the vessel fully submerged, it was the turn of the sonar team in the Ops Room.
‘Hot new sonar contact,’ called one of the operators. ‘Bearing 095 range 2770m.’ This was echoed by the Anti Submarine Warfare Director, an experienced petty officer. ‘Probsub 1234, 1.5 miles, tracking north speed slow.’
Lieutenant Sasha Dalziel was already in the Ops Room, waiting patiently for her mission briefing from the Principal Warfare Officer and the order ‘Action Wildcat’. As soon as she received it, complete with the sub’s updated suspected position, she headed straight back to the flight deck to prepare the Wildcat helo for launch. A team of fitters was already making final adjustments to her weapon load: one Stingray torpedo and one depth charge.
Back in the Ops Room, Daring’s Action Picture Supervisor, a leading seaman, was preparing to alert all ships and helos in the Task Group, using the fighting net known as ASW Alfa.
‘Flash Flash Flash. New sonar contact, track 1234, 095 1.5 miles, classified Probsub.’
Commander Ross Blane stood on the bridge, listening and thinking hard. He had the command open line in his left ear but his brain was churning with one overriding question: what are that submarine captain’s intentions? Because this was where he earned his annual £70,550 salary. Judge this wrong and HMS Daring could take a Chinese torpedo strike below her waterline. Act in haste and he could risk starting the Third World War.