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SEA OF SHADOWS 215
fifty-one Zulu. My unit holds passive broadband contact, bearing threezero-seven.
Initial classification: POSS-SUB, confidence level low, over.”
Less than a second later, Captain Whiley’s voice came over the
scrambled radio net. “SAU Commander, aye. Your contact designated
Gremlin Zero One. My unit will launch Samurai Seven-Nine in
approximately five mikes. Alert status of your aircraft, Firewalker Two-
Six upgraded to Ready-Five, over.”
“SAU Commander, this is Towers, roger, out.” As soon as he punched
out of the radio circuit, Ensign Cooper keyed back into the USW control
net aboard Towers. “TAO—USWE, the SAU Commander has upgraded
our helo alert status to Ready-Five.”
The TAO’s voice came back immediately. “TAO, aye. Break.
ASTAC—TAO, set Helo Ready-Five.”
The current Ready-Five helicopter, Samurai Seven-Nine was sitting on
Antietam’s flight deck, spinning its rotors up for launch at that very
second. It would be in the air in five minutes or less—time the screening
ships would use to build a firing solution and refine their classification of
the contact.
Cooper shifted his attention to the CDRT. Now came the tough part.
The next four or five minutes would be crucial. He needed to know what
the submarine, designated Gremlin Zero One, was up to—before
Antietam’s helo was in the air.
The first piece of the USW puzzle was in place; they knew the
contact’s bearing. Instead of a tidy NTDS symbol, the contact appeared on
the CDRT display as a red line extending from the center of the symbol for
USS Towers to the edge of the screen. The angle of the line was 307
degrees: the bearing of the contact from Towers. The contact could be
anywhere along that line of bearing, at a range of anything from a couple
of hundred yards, to hundreds of thousands of yards. To localize him
further, they would need to know his range. For an effective firing
solution, they would also need to know the target’s course and speed, but
that could be estimated with a good degree of accuracy once they knew the
contact’s range.
Cooper keyed his mike. “UB—USWE, got anything yet?”
The Underwater Battery Fire Control Operator keyed up. “USWE—
UB. That’s a negative, sir. The sonar track is looking pretty good, but it’s
going to take me a while to nail this guy down off passive broadband
alone. If you want something quick, I’m going to need a turn.”
“USWE, aye.”
If they’d had passive narrowband frequency data on the contact, the fire
control computer could have calculated the target’s range based on minute