.Chapter 59 Continue to work hard

Dozens of nautical miles away, the sinking "Sea Snake" heard the battle in the distance.

The explosion sound from the torpedo is very obvious, and can be clearly heard even if it is dozens of nautical miles away. The side sonar of the "Sea Snake" also detected the transport fleet, but it was not able to measure the direction and speed of the fleet. It could only roughly determine the fleet's route close to the coast.

About half an hour later, the "Sea Snake" detected another explosion.

It was still the torpedo explosion sound, but the intensity was much lower. The computer judged that the explosion occurred seventy nautical miles away, exceeding the maximum range of distance measurement.

The situation was not optimistic at all. The coalition must have discovered the submarine and launched a counterattack.

Wang Yuhan did not retreat, nor could he retreat.

After letting the "Sea Snake" break away from the seabed, Wang Yuhan did not issue a new order. No matter what the battle in the south, the fleet still sailed to Busan. If you stay here, you will gain sooner or later.

At this time, Westhofen made a very bold decision.

The anti-submarine helicopter of the "Halsey" caught a submarine in the southwest direction and confirmed it to be a conventional submarine of the Chinese Navy, and immediately dropped an anti-submarine torpedo.

The US military is not using mk46, but mk54.

Although mk54 adopts the mature technology of mk46, greatly reducing costs, it retains some of the advanced xing energy of mk50 and pays more attention to offshore shallow water anti-submarine. Compared with the mk46 D5 type used by the South Korean Navy, mk54's xing energy is much more advanced.

The two helicopters each dropped an mk54.

The 039 used several solutions to get rid of one mk54 and was then hit by another torpedo.

The power of the aviation anti-submarine torpedo is not very powerful, but it is enough to blow through the submarine's pressure-resistant shell. After being hit by the torpedo, 039 did not disintegrate, but sank to the seabed more than 60 meters deep.

After the lightweight items inside the submarine floated on the surface of Shanghai, the two anti-submarine helicopters did not fly away.

Instead of letting the anti-submarine helicopters launch another attack, Westhofen called the Korean Navy's speedboat.

The US anti-submarine helicopter did not carry deep-water bombs, and it seemed too extravagant to attack the sunken submarine with more than one million US dollars of anti-submarine torpedoes. If the submarine is finished, there is no need to waste the deep-water bomb. If the submarine floats up, it will be sunk with deep-water bombs.

When the Korean speedboat arrived, the p-3c also cleared the deep waterway.

The submarine that launched the torpedo slipped away and was not caught by the P-3c. Westhofen was not disappointed because all four torpedoes launched attacks on their own and did not drag wires. The submarine must have evasive maneuvers after launching the torpedo and left the dangerous seas.

The question now is, do you need to continue to walk the shallow waterway near the shore?

When avoiding torpedoes, a strategic pre-set ship and a fast transport ship hit the reef. Fortunately, the captain took timely measures to prevent greater losses.

If you continue sailing nearshore, no one can guarantee that the ship will not hit the reef again.

The Busan Strait is just that big. Anti-submarine patrol aircraft have cleared the deep waterway, and more anti-submarine patrol aircraft and anti-submarine helicopters are coming.

There is reason to believe that there are no submarines in the strait.

This judgment is in line with Westhoffen's previous speculation: eight submarines were found near this place, four of which were likely to be north of the Tsushima Strait. If the fleet changes to the Tsushima Strait after being threatened, it will enter the submarine ambush circle.

The fleet will not go to Tsushima Strait, but it does not mean that it cannot go through the deep water channel.

After leaving the Halsey on the west side of the Busan Strait, Westhofen asked the Gridley to accelerate and lead the fleet to the front to walk on the deep water channel.

To be on the safe side, he asked the two Korean frigates to turn first and sail directly to the northern waters of Tsushima Island.

If there are four submarines there, two Korean frigates can at least gain some time. With the cooperation of anti-submarine patrol aircraft and anti-submarine helicopters, the submarine can also be forced to give up the attack.

Westhofen guessed halfway.

There are indeed no submarines in the strait.

The torpedo was the Type 040 submarine. Because the distance was too far and the success rate of missile attack was too low, the captain could only aim at the slow-speed transport ship and let the torpedo sail at the slowest attack speed. As Westhofen guessed, after launching the torpedo, the submarine turned urgently and left the Busan Strait at the fastest submarine speed. Because the torpedo was discovered by the destroyer half an hour later, it took more than ten minutes to fly over, so the submarine sailed more than ten nautical miles and left the search area of ​​the anti-submarine patrol aircraft.

However, the submarine did not escape.

Westhofen turned the fleet to the deep waterway, and when he left the "Halsey", the submarine was in the southeast direction of the destroyer, less than fifteen nautical miles away.

Attack destroyers or withdraw from the battle?

The captain made a decision within half a minute: to attack the US destroyer!

This decision seems adventurous, but is actually very clever.

The two anti-submarine helicopters of the "Halsey" are returning and need to return to the destroyer to replenish fuel. There is at least fifteen minutes of anti-submarine gap. The anti-submarine patrol aircraft and anti-submarine helicopters that assist in the escort warships all traveled north with the fleet. The anti-submarine patrol aircraft also went to the northern waters of Tsushima Island, hundreds of kilometers away from the Type 040 submarine.

The only thing the submarine faced was the destroyer that was not equipped with towed sonar.

It can be said that this is the best time to attack destroyers.

After adjusting the course, the Type 040 submarine approached the target at a speed of six knots.

About half an hour later, two 0s returned to the air destroyer.

Because the flight deck can only accept one helicopter, and both helicopters need to be replenished, the gap left for the Type 040 submarine is not fifteen minutes, but thirty minutes. Even after thirty minutes, the "Halsey" can only dispatch one helicopter. The second helicopter needs to spend ten minutes to unfold the rotor on the flight deck to complete the preparations before taking off before it can take off.

Facing only one anti-submarine helicopter, the survival probability of the Type 040 submarine is more than 50%.

In order to improve the attack efficiency, the captain decided to take risks.

Thirty minutes later, the Type 040 submarine detected the sound of the helicopter when it took off. At this time, the submarine was about nine nautical miles away from the "Halsey".

This distance is close enough.

When the 533 mm heavy torpedo sails at its maximum speed, the range is twenty nautical miles, while when the 650 mm heavy torpedo sails at its maximum speed, the range is thirty-five nautical miles.

The Type 040 submarine first launched two 533 mm heavy torpedoes, set in self-navigation mode, sailing at a minimum attack speed of 35 knots in the front five nautical miles, and then accelerating the sprint after approaching the target. Ten minutes later, the Type 040 submarine launched two 650 mm heavy torpedoes. This time, the line-guided mode was selected, and the torpedo sailed at a maximum speed of 65 knots after leaving the launch tube.

Time is well grasped.

The "Halsey" first discovered two high-speed approaching 533 mm heavy torpedoes, and then accelerated their steering and carried out tactical evasion.

The helicopter that had already taken off the air flew towards the torpedo attack, searching for the submarine hidden under the sea.

On the destroyer, the second helicopter was ready for takeoff. However, the destroyer was turning to avoid and the helicopter was unable to take off.

The situation of the "Halsey" is very dangerous.

Although the "Halsey" vertical launch system has four "Aslock" anti-submarine missiles that can attack submarines within 20 kilometers, when the sqs-53c ball's first sonar was disturbed and the two 650 mm heavy torpedoes were not discovered in time, nor could they find the submarines that were close to each other.

To fight back, the helicopter must first find the submarine.

Affected by the last attack, the helicopter sent by the Halsey flew straight for fifteen nautical miles before dropping the first sonar buoy.

At this time, the speed of the Type 040 submarine had dropped below four knots, and the noise it emitted was very weak.

The helicopter did not find the submarine, but found two 650 mm heavy torpedoes.

There were actually four torpedoes!

The officers and soldiers on the "Halsey" immediately became nervous.

The destroyer has left the shallow waters near the coast, and the torpedo is close at hand. It is too late to leave the deep waters. All hope is placed on the slq-25 torpedo jamming system.

When the torpedo was less than ten chains away from the destroyer, the "Halsey" first dropped a torpedo jamming bomb.

If these two torpedoes use acoustic self-guided, the jamming bomb can play a role.

Unfortunately, both torpedoes use wake self-guided.

As the torpedo passed through the bubble curtain wall created by the jamming bomb, the Halsey threw a drag-and-drop bait.

Unlike the torpedo bait of a submarine, the torpedo bait of a destroyer is dragged behind by a cable, which not only mimics the noise emitted by the destroyer, but also disrupts the wake of the destroyer and creates a magnetic field similar to that of the destroyer, so that the torpedo automatically detonates when approaching the bait.

You should know that most anti-ship torpedoes use magnetic induction near-fighting fuzes.

The best way to attack surface ships is not to hit the ship and explode a big hole in the belly of the ship, but to detonate below the ship, and use the shock wave generated by the explosion to break the ship's keel. A heavy torpedo with a power of 450 kilograms of explosion, which can blow a warship with a displacement of about 3,000 tons into two pieces. Even a large destroyer with a displacement of nearly 1,000 tons can't bear it.

To this end, most heavy anti-ship torpedoes use magnetic induction near-fighting fuzes.

When the torpedo approaches the target, it will enter the attack depth, which is two to three meters more than the ship's draft, and then detonate the magnetic field generated by the ship at the bottom of the ship.

If the torpedo bait can get close to the torpedo and generate a magnetic field similar to the ship, it can detonate the torpedo.

This move had an immediate effect, and two 533-mm torpedoes were detonated about 500 meters behind the "Halsey".

However, the torpedo bait failed to deceive two 650 mm heavy torpedoes.

These two torpedoes are controlled by a submarine, and the torpedo's fuse will be unlocked after the submarine cuts off the wire.

Because the torpedo bait detonated two 533mm heavy torpedoes, the Type 040 submarine did not rush to cut off the wires. When the torpedo was less than two chains from the destroyer, about 350 meters, the submarine cut off the wires and allowed the torpedo to attack independently.

At this time, the wake of the destroyer was very obvious and the noise was particularly loud.

Two 650 mm heavy torpedoes have dual self-guided functions. When attacking with wake self-guided, the acoustic self-guided system will continuously monitor the target's noise characteristics and calculate the optimal detonation position.
Chapter completed!