Yesterda's War 8 - Untimely Warriors, page 29
“Sounds like we are going to be out here for a while, Sir. We should be good on supplies for another month or so since this new boat has only two-thirds the crew size as the older Bandfish boats because of the new automation equipment. So our food supplies will hold us for a while. Plus, we can make our own drinking water now.”
“That’s good. I was wondering about our supply situation. We are still going to have to enforce a rest schedule. With a smaller crew, the workload is going to be higher, especially if we have to go to action stations. Fatigue is going to lead to mistakes that could get us all killed.”
“I’ll make sure to take of that, Sir.”
“This will be the first time that an Australian submarine has been involved in combat in well over fifty years. We are determined to not only do our duty but also to bring all of our men back home safely.”
Eric and the others in Tigershark’s control room all nodded their heads in agreement.
“It’s a good thing that we have full war shots in torpedo tubes and our VLS silos, Sir.” The XO pointed out.
“I know that. But the second that those missiles clear the water, those bastards are going to know pretty much exactly where we are located. So we better make sure that they hit their targets and that we get the hell away from our firing point as quickly as possible.
We also need to make sure that our SLAM mount is working properly as well in case we find ourselves with a patrolling helicopter or aircraft hunting over top of us.
The Submarine Launched Antiaircraft Missile or SLAM mount was an elevating pedestal mount that was normally kept within a sealed container inside of a submarine’s sail. Originally, designed to fire one of six manual-command-guided Blowpipe surface-to-air missiles. The mast was originally fitted with a simple television camera but was later upgraded with IR sensors and a thermal imaging sight as well. The SLAM launcher was fitted to several different classes of Commonwealth submarines over the past couple of decades.
The SLAM launcher was first upgraded to fire the Javelin semi-automatic command-guided SAM. The final iteration of the SLAM launcher as fitted to the latest version of the Bandfish could fire either the Javelin, the Starstreak laser beam homing SAM or the standard Commonwealth CM-5 IR-guided man-portable surface-to-air missile. These missiles can also be used in a direct-fire mode against small surface ships if necessary.
Tigershark’s SLAM launcher carried three each of Starstreak and the CM-5 MANPADS missiles. All that was necessary for them to be fired would be for the submarine to bring the top of the sail just above water. Then the mast would be extended, pointed at the target, and a missile fired. In the case of the Starstreak, the launcher’s laser designator would have to remain focused on the target until impact though.
A few hours later, Captain Arthur had Tigershark come back up to periscope depth for a chance to recharge batteries and to pick up another intelligence update. Captain Arthur was looking through the latest printout from Canberra when Lt. Commander Falkner came back to the command center after taking a short rest break.
“What’s new from headquarters, Sir?”
“It looks like we’re going to hit them north of Maluku. There appears to be a very target-rich environment there according to the latest intelligence.”
“I guess that the American submariners were right that there are two kinds of vessels in the ocean, submarines and targets.”
“Well, we have to remember that Indonesia has submarines too. Some of their boats are German-designed and built Elektro-boats that have been extensively modernized. We cannot afford to underestimate the threat that they might pose to us. You can be sure that they will have homing torpedoes available to them also.”
“With our speed, they will have to be right on top of us for their fish to catch us. That will be very hard to do with the sophistication of our sensors. Our acoustic tiles are also in very good shape since they were serviced in drydock shortly before we went on patrol. We have anti-torpedo countermeasures and decoys loaded and ready to go also, Sir.”
“That’s good. But we have to consider anything under the surface, on the surface, or flying overhead to be a potentially deadly threat, Eric. We cannot afford to underestimate even the Indonesians.”
“Who else is out here with orders to go hunting Indonesia shipping, Sir?” Eric asked.
“We have one of our sister ships, HMAS Orca, that is currently operating west of Perth. According to the latest information, Orca is being assigned a hunting area in the Timor Sea, south of Kupang,
RAN Headquarters expects to have another six submarines sortied within the next week along with more than twice as many surface combatants.”
“We are going to need all of the help that we can get, Sir. I think that we will run out of weapons before we run out of targets at this point.”
“Maybe so, but we should still take a big bite out of them first.” Captain Arthur replied with a broad predatory smile.
As this was happening, Captain Todd Carswell at the Darwin naval base took the precaution of sending out a pair of minesweepers to search for any hidden mines within the port’s main channel before sending out HMAS Melbourne and her six escorts.
The minesweepers were supplemented by a quartet of small unmanned craft that carried a combination of mine-hunting sonar and towed gear designed to mimic the acoustic and magnetic signature of large warships. The drone craft had only traveled about a quarter of the way through the channel before the first massive column of water erupted from a mine detonation and dramatically rose thirty meters high.
Immediately, all RAN ships and other ship traffic going in and out of Darwin, Perth, and other Australian ports were halted. Initial scans found several bottom mines had been laid at the entrance to Darwin. It would take nearly two days to get all of the mines swept from Darwin’s main channel. Only after the mines were swept could the RAN begin to deploy more of their warships.
Because other Australian ports suffered from a severe shortage of minesweeping ships and equipment, it would take several days longer before they could be cleared. This required quick action for portable mine-clearing kits to be assembled and flown to the other ports. There, the kits were installed on fishing trawlers to make them into ad hoc mine hunters.
Because of a directive sent to the Derby militia by what appeared to be an authentic agency, several patrol craft had been scheduled to perform a sweep of King Sound and the main shipping channel coming out of it about a week before the Indonesian invasion of New Guinea. Several unknown craft were sighted by the patrol craft well within Australian territorial waters. These unknown craft immediately turned away rather than be challenged for inspection. At the time, it was thought that they were Chinese fishing vessels.
Similar ships had been spotted outside of major Australian naval bases at around the same time. However, these vessels had not been challenged nearly as quickly and aggressively as the vessels outside of King Sound.
Cavill Militia patrol craft were immediately fitted with mine-hunting equipment and used to sweep the main channel in addition to areas around the offshore defense platforms at the entrance of King Sound and near Kalumburu. Cavill Militia craft, fortunately, did not find any deployed naval mines that could interfere with operations there.
Chapter Thirty-Five:
Bandfish-N Submarine RAN Tigershark
Banda Sea, West of Maluku
March 1, 1999
Tigershark was moving away from a group of Indonesian vessels after launching its latest attack on the invasion force.
“These bloody helicopters around here are thick as flies over a rotting dingo, Sir.” Eric commented.
“I suppose that the Indonesians weren’t happy about us putting a torpedo into one of their old destroyers.” Tigershark’s captain quipped in reply.
“I just wish that they weren’t so eager trying to chase us around. It was a little sporty for a while when they dropped that torpedo near us a few minutes ago.”
“At least they are not all hunting us. The last sweep of our periscope saw a big container ship that the bastards are apparently using as a helicopter carrier to fly troops into Papua.”
“That sounds like a legitimate target to me, Sir. Let’s go sink her!” Eric eagerly replied.
“I know. But we need to get some deeper water under us first. I want to hit her and several other ships with a missile salvo. We can launch five anti-ship missiles from each one of the missile silos in our sail.”
“We will still have missiles in the other three silos for other targets, Sir. Do you want to save them for other targets?”
“Yes, I do. Besides, if we fire more than one silo’s load of missiles, it will make it a lot easier for the Indonesians to figure out where we are located.
Load in target coordinates for that container ship and the four next largest ships out there. It is highly unlikely that they have any kind of substantial defensive weapons. They certainly won’t have any weapons that can shoot down one of our anti-ship missiles.”
“Aye, Sir. Transferring data from sonar to missile fire control now.”
“What is the state of our battery charge, Eric?”
“We are still at ninety-five percent charge on our batteries. We have been doing almost all of our maneuvering at silent speed using our nuclear battery to power our motors, so far.”
“Very good. I want to hold our battery charge for as long as possible if we need to make an evasive sprint away from an enemy torpedo.”
“Sir, we have our missiles ready to fire in Silo Number One. All we have to do is come to periscope depth and open the silo door now.”
“Excellent, have the crew come to Action Stations, Missile now. Then go to periscope depth and open Silo Number One.”
A few moments later, Tigershark’s Executive Officer announces that the boat is at the designated depth and that the missile silo door was open.
“Fire five missiles from Silo Number One.” Captain Arthur ordered.
The submarine briefly shuddered as each missile was ejected vertically from its container at about five-second intervals. When the last missile was fired, Captain Arthur ordered the silo door to be closed and for the submarine to dive down to a depth of two hundred meters.
“Increase speed to ten knots and change course to zero-one-eight-five.” Tigershark’s captain immediately ordered to increase the distance between the Australian submarine and the Indonesian troopships that she had just fired missiles at.
Ten knots was the fastest that the Bandfish-N could move underwater while remaining both silent and with her propulsor drawing a minimum amount of power from her batteries. Tigershark was over fifty kilometers away from her targets when the first of her missiles struck. A few moments later, the concussion was picked up by Tigershark’s sonar operator.
“Sir, I am beginning to pick up explosions on my hydrophones.” The sonar operator reported, pausing for a few moments before adding.
“I have heard at least five explosions on five different bearings, Sir. It looks like we hit all of our targets.”
“Bloody good! Now, hopefully, we hit the right five targets.” Eric replied.
“Somehow, I really doubt that any civilian traffic will have gotten mixed into that lot, especially after we declared the maritime exclusion zone.” Captain Arthur commented.
“Our air force needs to get into the fray now. That will divert enough of the enemy’s attention that we can go back in and sink a few more ships.”
“Sir, I just picked up the sounds of several objects that have dropped into water near us right after a rotary-wing aircraft flew close to the water. They sound like they might be sonobuoys.”
“What’s the bearing on those objects?”
“Bearing is zero-three-five, Sir. The objects are definitely sonobuoys and are beginning to ping.” The sonar operator reported.
“Quartermaster, change course to two-one-five. Let’s put some distance between us and those sonobuoys. Also, make our depth five hundred meters. That should put us under the thermocline.”
“Aye, Sir.”
Tigershark angled sharply downward as the submarine quickly increased its depth to evade detection.
“Have you picked anything else hitting the water?” Captain Arthur asked the sonar operator.
“No, Sir.” The sonar operator said initially but then added.
“Wait a second. I just heard about twenty more objects hitting the water about a hundred meters behind us.”
“Everyone brace! Someone just lobbed a salvo of rocket-propelled depth charges in our general area.”
A couple of seconds later, Tigershark repeatedly shuddered from the concussion of multiple explosions behind her.
“Damage report.” Captain Arthur ordered.
The various sections within the submarine quickly reported that there was no apparent damage from the depth charge explosions.
“I wonder if the buggers had gotten a sniff of us from one of those bloody sonobuoys?” The Executive Officer commented.
“I don’t know. But we need to put some distance from that convoy for a little while before we come back for another bite at the apple. In any event, we need to be very vigilant because we still don’t know where those Indonesian submarines are yet.
But I want everyone to know that they did bloody well. We doubtlessly hit the bastards hard.” Captain Arthur told the others in the control room.
Chapter Thirty-Six:
Derby Militia Headquarters
East of Derby, Western Australia
March 1, 1999
James Cavill drove to the Derby Militia headquarters to speak to the Australian Army’s liaison officer to the Derby Militia, Major Corrine Wells. She also served as well as the liaison for the Royal Australian Air Force at the same time. When he arrived at Major Wells’ office, James found her and the Militia’s commander, Colonel Paul Andersen there.
“Somehow, I reckoned that you would already be here, Paul. Judith said that you were with Corrine earlier when my big sister came by to visit as well.”
“Major Wells was just telling us that the Air Force has been struggling to get enough combat power out there to stop the Indonesian invasion force. They are pushing forward a damned large number of transport ships towards Papua and have already landed a few troops using helicopters. They have already started to engage with what few security forces that we have in the West.
Once they start getting their ships up to the shoreline, the invaders will be able to land a significantly higher number of troops along with artillery and armored vehicles to support them. They will be able to take control of a very large portion of New Guinea before we can get enough troops and fire support moved west from Port Moresby to stop them.”
“Why isn’t the navy able to stop them?” James asked.
“Because they are still bottled up in their ports because someone slipped in and laid minefields outside of all of our naval bases. The admirals don’t want to risk any of our major combatants hitting a mine and taking it completely out of action. They are already working to sweep the main channels and hope to have them clear by this evening.
But that effort has meant that except for the two old frigates that were hit at the beginning of this conflict and a couple of Bandfish-N boats, our navy is stuck in port.
Now, I have heard that our subs are raising hell among the invasion fleet. But the Indonesians have more ships out there than our subs have weapons. The Indonesians haven’t just sent off all of their amphibious warfare vessels on this endeavor. We have received intelligence reports that the Indonesians have turned a big container ship into a helicopter carrier and are even sending more than a dozen car ferries loaded with military vehicles aboard them towards New Guinea.” Major Wells explained.
“Bloody hell! We’ve got a bunch of people out there working in the factories and mines out there too. Can’t our Air Force do something about the situation?” James asked.
“We are working on it. But we have been dealing with budgetary issues for the past few years have hurt our readiness substantially. The new FB-80s and Goshawks have taken up the lion’s share of the Air Force’s budget. We just don’t have a lot of conventional fighter-bombers available right now.
Right now, the skies between Jakarta and Papua have Indonesian warplanes flying all over them. They may not be especially modern or sophisticated. I have heard that the Indonesians have even been using those tiny Ajeet fighters that the Indians retired from IAF service a few years ago. But the situation is that Indonesia has at least twice as many aircraft deployed to this operation than what we can send.” Major Wells admitted.
“The fighters that we do have available are busy covering our transport aircraft and other craft moving troops and equipment to Port Moresby. We can’t afford to leave them uncovered for fear that Indonesian warplanes will swoop in and slaughter our troops before they can even get on the ground.” Colonel Andersen added.
“So what do you need from us? We already have committed all of our transport aircraft and WiGE craft to the movement of reinforcement troops and equipment.”
“How many aircraft do we have available for the militia to use for combat, James?” Colonel Andersen asked.
“We have twelve older Dragonfly III jet fighter-bombers that have retained as technology testbeds. But only eight of them are available for operations at this time. We also have nearly two dozen operational manned aircraft of various types including several armed trainers and a handful of prototype aircraft.”
“I think that we are going to need to get them activated, even if it is only to provide combat air patrols over Western Australia and the seas between here and New Guinea.” Major Wells interjected.
“I think that we can arrange that. The biggest problem will be ensuring that we have enough experienced pilots to fly them. We have a few qualified pilots within the Militia. But I don’t think that will be enough to keep those aircraft in the air or at the ready.” James admitted.
