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Anvil (USS Antietam) :
SEA OF SHADOWS 219
A small armored hatch snapped open on the cruiser’s forward missile
deck, exposing the weatherproof membrane that covered the upper end of
a vertical launch missile cell. A millisecond later, the membrane was
shattered as Antietam’s Vertical Launch Anti-Submarine Rocket
(ASROC), code-name Anvil, blasted out of its missile cell and roared into
the night sky on a silvery-orange pillar of fire.
Although it came out of the launcher like any other missile, the
ASROC’s flight profile was like no missile in the world. Instead of diving
toward the surface of the ocean to begin a sea-skimming run, or turning
toward its target and accelerating to an intercept point, the ASROC heeled
itself over at a forty-five–degree angle and began boosting toward the top
of a pre-programmed ballistic arc.
Ten thousand feet above the ocean, it hit the top of that arc, and any
passing resemblance it had to an ordinary missile vanished. An electronic
module inside the weapon sent trigger pulses to a pair of explosive blocks
in the airframe. The explosives detonated instantly, shattering the steel
restraining bands that held the missile together, and splitting the fiberglass
airframe into two pieces. The missile literally came apart in midair, and
from the expanding cloud of discarded debris fell the ASROC’s payload: a
specially configured Mark-54 torpedo.
The torpedo dropped toward the sea like a stone, completing the
downward half of the ballistic arc as it hurtled toward its rendezvous with
the waves. As the weapon fell past two thousand feet, a parachute
deployed, slowing its rate of descent just enough to prevent damage when
it hit the water.
Falling somewhat slower now, the weapon slammed into the ocean
with enough force to shatter its nose cone along a series of pre-stressed
structural points—absorbing a little more of the shock and protecting the
delicate sonar transducer in the nose of the weapon.
As it sank through the ocean, seawater rushed in through small vents,
completing the electrical circuit for the weapon’s salt-water batteries. The
batteries transmitted power to the weapon’s computer, and the computer
(in turn) sent signals to other systems, lighting off the sonar sensors, prearming
the warhead, and taking control of the fins and stabilizers.
All of this happened very quickly. Less than six seconds after its
launch from USS Antietam, the torpedo’s turbine engine spun to life. The
weapon calculated its depth and position, and then accelerated toward the
start point for its search pattern.