(CCPlays) Cold Waters (Dot Mod): In the Presence of Wolves 1984 -- 688 vs an SSK Wolfpack
0The year is 1984, and we are in the time of "Red Storm Rising" by Tom Clancy (and Larry Bond). In this simple Cold Waters scenario, "In the Presence of Wolves" (under single missions), we have a 688-class SSN going up against a wolfpack of diesel-electric subs, all of which are quieter than we are. Can we detect all of them and kill all of them without suffering damage?
With only 4 tubes on the 688, my usual MO is to load 3 torpedoes and 1 MOSS decoy, which I do so before the scenario starts.
When the scenario starts, I immediately order ultra-quiet, as I was at near periscope depth and can hide among the surface noise. Sonar immediately picked up multiple contacts, sierra 1 through 6. I started IDing them one by one. The weird part is... They ALL sound like diesel subs, or very close!
However, I have been fooled before. Still, it's better to assume hostile unless proven otherwise... I also deployed the towed array to get more info. The contacts are running deep, so I settled "just" above the layer and let my towed array sink below the layer to get more acoustic data. I know this wolfpack is traveling together, so I can rule out the ones that don't seem to match the rough heading. And I can rule out the contacts that seem to be on the surface.
When the crew identified S2 as a trawler, fixing my mistake, I realized I've misclassified a couple more. With that in mind, S3 is a trawler, and checking S1, which is alone to the south, is likely to be another trawler as well.
That leaves a Zulu, a Romeo, and a Tango as S4, S5, and S6 respectively.
I have also at this time identified their base course which is roughly 065, and they are going at 12 knots (which is pretty fast, , as a diesel-electric sub has a flank speed of about 16 kts).
I think I will "chase" them at 5 kts, and I will settle in behind them. When I do, I can shoot torpedos up their baffles. With the layer blocking the noise, as well, they will never see them coming.
I turned to course 180 then 114, and accelerated time to get behind them. When I judged I am in their baffles, I fired one torpedo at each sub, turned gently right to 135, and waited calmly for the torpedoes to reach their targets.
The Romeo was the closest and it actually detected the incoming passive torpedo and frantically turned left and dropped decoys, but that only bought it another minute or two to live. You can't outrun or outturn a torpedo doing 40+ kts when you can do only 16 kts. It managed to drop a second decoy before the torpedo detonated, and break-up sounds were heard.
The Tango just kept going, never hearing its doom approaching. The Zulu actually did a hard left and came around wondering what was going on. Unfortunately for them, my other two torpedoes are about to activate. I adjusted the activation point a little, as the Zulu is now closer. I tend to use passive torpedoes as I find the acoustic environment chaotic enough already. And a passive torpedo diving through a layer is almost impossible to detect until point-blank range, whereas an active torpedo can be heard for dozens of miles.
Torpedo 2 found the Tango first, almost right up its baffles, it barely started making a right turn and dropped decoy, but the torpedo ignored it and killed the sub.
The Zulu went through some sort of a duct that changed the distance estimate significantly, but the torpedo, being much closer, was not fooled. Again, the Mk 48 torpedo locked on and we barely have to make any corrections. Zulu try to turn northwest and dropped more decoys, but the last-ditch effort barely delayed the torpedo hit. It sank just like the others.
I fired three torpedoes, and I got three kills. Clean sweep. I decided to end the scenario after verifying the trawlers are indeed trawlers.
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