(CCPlays) Cold Waters Dot MOD | 1984 NATO Cruiser Campaign | Part 3: Tango Hunter
1Previously, in the 1984 NATO Cruiser Campaign...
We continued to hunt and eliminate enemy subs, including a Victor I and a Victor III, but these proved to be quite slippery and we almost got hit.
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Welcome to another episode of Captain Chang Plays (CCP) and we are still in Cold Waters. We are doing 1984 NATO campaign, but with a twist... we are using a surface ship... a Ticonderoga class guided missile cruiser.
New updates will be posted every two days.
Thumbnail: End of a Tango after Mk 46 had exploded near the stern.
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13-DEC-84 We are off the Norwegian coast near the city of Trondheim, trying to block the coastal waters from Soviet diesel-electric subs trying to sneak through.
Sonar reported contacts to the west. We ID'ed two in the front, which seems to be quite close. Even as our helos rushed toward them, they fired torpedoes at us. We turned and evaded, only for sonar to identify even more signatures beyond them. Seems there are no less than FOUR enemy subs out there. We really do have our hands full this time.
Initially identified as 4 x Kilos, these turned out to be 4 x Tangos, much larger and thus deadlier opponents.
Even with ASROC and both helos dropping torpedoes, it took 15 minutes to get the first kill, but the two closest subs, S2 and S3, were both hit and sunk. However, S4 is heading in and avoiding torpedoes, while S5 had been sitting further back, but is approaching as well.
A combined attack with both ASROC and helo crews stopped S4, but it had fired several torpedoes while further way, and one of its torpedoes is going to come VERY close to our own wake. We turned away and hoped for the best, while we reload torpedoes on the helos to battle S5.
We turned away from the torpedo in record time only to have it turn into our wake. That was the dreaded Soviet wake-homing torpedo 53-65 (533mm tubes, released 1965) and it's doing 45 kt and we can't outrun it, even with our 32 kt speed. We did our best to turn as tight as possible, hoping to intercept our own wake, but it was not fooled. I ordered the collision bell, and have the rearmost compartments evacuated, then the engine secured. By this time, we ran out of Mk 46 reloads for the helos, and I ordered them to take off with as much fuel and be ready for rescue ops in a worst case scenario. At least we're not far from the Norwegian coast...
The torpedo hit, and it was a little underwhelming, but the damcon reports came in quickly. Propulsion was indeed offline from shock damage and will need to be manually restarted. There was a big hole in the stern and while the ship is not in danger of sinking (yet), another hit will likely break the keel. The shock also caused one of the fish in the side tubes to eject itself into the sea, destroying the tube in the process.
We are still in fighting shape, except we can't move. But ChEng is on it, and he hopes to give us full steam in 5 minutes.
In the meanwhile, we still have a Tango to hunt down. Only one helo has one torpedo left, the other is empty. There were four more in the tubes, now 3, but we can't transfer those to the helos. The rest of the fight will have to be done with ASROCs, but the enemy is not in range yet.
Fortunately for us, instead of attacking, the Tango had gone silent running, and we can't hear him on passive sonar anywhere. We know he's somewhere to the west, and we have his last bearing: 260.
Three and a half minutes later, the engines are back online, but I ordered ahead slow. We are hunting, and we don't need to make noise. We deployed towed array as well. When Sonar thinks we found S5, the last Tango, and it seems to be within our ASROC range, I ordered one fired at maximum range, and sent the helo with the remaining torpedo after it as well.
Turns out, range estimate was bit too optimistic. He's actually 11.5 km away, but he's definitely approaching... at a silent running 3 kts.
So I ordered up ahead 1/3rd, and started to zigzag to the west to get closer. When the range dropped to 10.0 (and ASROC's range is 9.6 km) I fired one right at the edge of the envelope, with the helo to drop one from behind as well.
It was the helo's torpedo, i.e the last torpedo, that finally brought down the Tango. I had another ASROC on the way, but it wasn't needed.
And those were the submarines we need to kill to fulfill the mission. Mission accomplished! Got a medal for that.
With no reloads left, and plenty of damage to patch, we sailed back to Holy Loch for some quick repairs, and rearm.
Then it's back to war...
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