The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

'We've been in the missile-sub business for over thirty years. We've never been
tracked in deep water. When I was XO on Hammerhead, we ran exercises against
Georgia and had our heads handed to us. I never tried tracking an Ohio when I
had Dallas, and the one exercise I ran against Pulaski was the toughest thing I
ever did. But I've tracked Deltas, Typhoons, everything the Russians put in the
water. I've taken hull shots of Victors. We're so good at this business . . .'
The squadron commander frowned. 'Harry, we're used to being the best.'
Ricks continued to speak reasonably. 'Bart, we are the best. The only people
close to us are the Brits, and I think we have them faded. Nobody else is in the
same ballpark. I got an idea.'
'What's that?'
'You're worried about Mr Akula. Okay, I can understand that. It's a good boat,
like a late 637-class even, for damned sure the best thing they've ever put in
the water. Okay, we have standing orders to evade everything that comes our way
– but you gave Rosselli a nice write-up for tracking this same Akula. You
probably got a little heat from Group for that.'
'Good guess, Harry. A couple of noses went decidedly out of joint, but if they
don't like the way I run my squadron, they can always pick a new squadron boss.'
'What do we know about Admiral Lunin?'
'She's in the yard for overhaul now, due out late January.'
'Going by past performance, it'll come out a little quieter.'
'Probably. Word is that she'll have a new sonar suite, say about ten years
behind us,' Mancuso added.
'And that doesn't allow for the operators. It's still not a match for us, not
even close to one. We can prove that.'
'How?'
'Why not recommend to Group that any boat that comes across an Akula is supposed
to track him aggressively. Let the fast-attack guys really try to get in close.
But if a boomer gets close enough to track without risk of counter-detection,
let's go for that, too. I think we need better data on this bird. If he's a
threat, let's upgrade what information we have on him.'
'Harry, that will really put Group into the overhead. They're not going to like
this idea at all.' But Mancuso already did, and Harry could see it.
Ricks snorted. 'So? We're the best, Bart. You know it. I know it. They know it.
We set some reasonable guidelines.'
'Like what?'
'The farthest anyone has ever tracked an Ohio is what?'
'Four thousand yards, Mike Heimbach on Scranton against Frank Kemeny on
Tennessee. Kemeny detected Heimbach first – difference was about one minute on
detection. Everything closer than that was a pre-arranged test.'
'Okay, we multiply that by a factor of . . . five, say. That's more than safe,
Bart. Mike Heimbach had a brand-new boat, the first rendition of the new sonar
integration system, and three extra sonarmen out of Group Six, as I recall.'
Mancuso nodded. 'Right, it was a deliberate test, and they worst-cased
everything to see if anyone could detect an Ohio. Isothermal water, below the
layer, everything.'
And still Tennessee won,' Ricks pointed out. 'Frank was under orders to make it