Sea of Shadows eBook - Navy Thriller.com

312 JEFF EDWARDS
active J-band radar seekers! We have in-bound missiles from the coast.
First cut looks like Siraji HY-1 Silkworms.”
The TAO was about to acknowledge the report when the Electronics
Warfare Technician cut him off with a follow-up report. “TAO—EW.
Make that twelve! We have a second flight of six. I say again, we have
twelve in-bound Vipers! Request permission to initiate jamming
protocols.”
“EW—TAO. Initiate jamming and stand by on chaff. Break. Air—
TAO, can you confirm inbound Vipers?”
“TAO—Air. That’s affirmative, sir. We just picked them up about two
seconds ago. Twelve inbounds!”
“TAO—aye! Break! All Stations—TAO, we have in-bound Vipers! I
say again, we have missiles in-bound! This is not a drill! Weapons
Control, verify that we are in Aegis ready-auto and CIWS is set to autoengage.”
“TAO—Weapons Control. Affirmative, boss. We are locked and
cocked. Bring ’em on!”
“TAO—EW. Standing by on chaff. Recommend new course threeone-zero
to minimize our radar cross-section.”
The TAO looked up at the Aegis display screens. Twelve hostilemissile
symbols had appeared, and all of them were rapidly closing on the
Towers. “TAO, aye. Break. Bridge—TAO. Come right to new course
three-one-zero.”
“Bridge, aye! Coming right to three-one-zero.”
All around CIC, operators began glancing up from their own consoles
to steal looks at the big screens. Twelve missiles? They’d never trained
for that many at one time.
“This is going to get ugly,” an unidentified voice said.
“All right, people,” the captain said. “Stay focused. Do your jobs, and
everything will be okay.”
Suddenly, three of the missile symbols veered away and disappeared
off the display.
“TAO—Air. Splash three.”
“Maybe that jamming gear is finally going to pay for itself,” the XO
said.
The TAO frowned. “Why only three? We’re transmitting a broadband
jamming strobe. It should be hitting all of those Vipers at the same time.
If Silkworm missiles are impervious to jamming, we shouldn’t have gotten
any of them. If they’re vulnerable to jamming, we should have gotten
them all.”