Molon Labe
02-28-2009, 04:46 PM
I started off on a routine maritime security patrol in a P-3 in over the Aegean. At 0500hrs, shortly after takeoff, I received a war warning from CTF160 advising me that Russian aggression in the area might be imminent. I immediately began locating and identifying merchant traffic in the area, as well as laying down some sonobouys in and near shipping routes. Today was a busy day in the southwestern channels, as well as near the entrance to the Dardanelles. Most of the lanes in the southern portions of the Suez-bound route were clear.
There was no sign of any Russian activity until about 0630 hrs, when without any warning, there was a distress call from the tanker Alt Bev. This was not a ship I had identified, but nearly all the ships I had not identified were those near the Dardanelles. I made due haste northeast toward the area, but I was over 65nm away and knew I wouldn't arrive quickly. En route, I recieved another message from CTF160 acknowledging the attack against the Alt Bev and attributing it to Russian submarine activity. I was ordered to locate and prosecute the submarine responsible for the attack.
While enroute, I continued to update radar information of contacts of interest. Sure enough, one radar contact that I had been monitoring no longer appeared on the scope. She sure went down fast! So instead of a flaming datum, I had an absent datum. Good enough. I planned to start a search starting from 10nm of the last known location of the missing ship.
As I was arriving, I caught a lucky break. The northmost in a line of buoys I had laid down an hour ago caught brief contact with a 50-125hz signature, which appeared to be in a shallow area near a small island to the west of the shipping channel. Even luckier, there was a supertanker in the immediate area that did not appear to be damaged. And two ships futher north appeared to have moved out of torpedo range, although a missile attack was always a possibility. Given the distance from the PROSUB to the likely location the Alt Bev went down, it was likely antiship missiles were used in that attack as well.
I approached the shallows from the north, snoozed the radar, and laid down a line of 1 DIFAR, 2 DICASS perpendicular to the bearing line from the old buoy. After that, I returned to altitude and monitored the buoys on passive channels. Several minutes after the buoys came online and there was still no contact. Switching to active mode on the 2 DICASS, I immediately gained contact on the submarine from angled-aspect at a range of about 2nm. I was in position to begin an attack run immediately.
I approached the target from the opposite side of the island, flying NOE overland to mask my approach. I dropped a Mk54 torpedo in about 400ft of water, slightly NW of the last known location of the submarine. I immediately climbed out, dispensing flares to foil any attemmpt that might be made with an SA-14, but fortunately that never happened.
The Mk54 performed flawlessly, quickly snapping up its target and chasing it down. The enemy submarine was close enough to the surface that the kill could be confirmed by camera.
The remainder of the patrol proved uneventful. No futher attacks on shipping nor contact with any Russians occurred.
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/6069/confirmedkill.jpg
There was no sign of any Russian activity until about 0630 hrs, when without any warning, there was a distress call from the tanker Alt Bev. This was not a ship I had identified, but nearly all the ships I had not identified were those near the Dardanelles. I made due haste northeast toward the area, but I was over 65nm away and knew I wouldn't arrive quickly. En route, I recieved another message from CTF160 acknowledging the attack against the Alt Bev and attributing it to Russian submarine activity. I was ordered to locate and prosecute the submarine responsible for the attack.
While enroute, I continued to update radar information of contacts of interest. Sure enough, one radar contact that I had been monitoring no longer appeared on the scope. She sure went down fast! So instead of a flaming datum, I had an absent datum. Good enough. I planned to start a search starting from 10nm of the last known location of the missing ship.
As I was arriving, I caught a lucky break. The northmost in a line of buoys I had laid down an hour ago caught brief contact with a 50-125hz signature, which appeared to be in a shallow area near a small island to the west of the shipping channel. Even luckier, there was a supertanker in the immediate area that did not appear to be damaged. And two ships futher north appeared to have moved out of torpedo range, although a missile attack was always a possibility. Given the distance from the PROSUB to the likely location the Alt Bev went down, it was likely antiship missiles were used in that attack as well.
I approached the shallows from the north, snoozed the radar, and laid down a line of 1 DIFAR, 2 DICASS perpendicular to the bearing line from the old buoy. After that, I returned to altitude and monitored the buoys on passive channels. Several minutes after the buoys came online and there was still no contact. Switching to active mode on the 2 DICASS, I immediately gained contact on the submarine from angled-aspect at a range of about 2nm. I was in position to begin an attack run immediately.
I approached the target from the opposite side of the island, flying NOE overland to mask my approach. I dropped a Mk54 torpedo in about 400ft of water, slightly NW of the last known location of the submarine. I immediately climbed out, dispensing flares to foil any attemmpt that might be made with an SA-14, but fortunately that never happened.
The Mk54 performed flawlessly, quickly snapping up its target and chasing it down. The enemy submarine was close enough to the surface that the kill could be confirmed by camera.
The remainder of the patrol proved uneventful. No futher attacks on shipping nor contact with any Russians occurred.
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/6069/confirmedkill.jpg