Chapter 558 Confidence in Domestic Equipment
Earlier, on the other side of the exercise area, slightly closer to the middle.
Underwater.
In the command cabin of the Great Wall No. 298 submarine, it was as quiet as death.
In fact, no submarine search equipment is sensitive enough to detect conversations in a submarine. The prohibition of talking in a silent state is just an exaggerated description in some literary works.
But in a war situation, it is indeed necessary to ensure that there are no unnecessary conversations in the command module.
Captain Ma Jie lowered his head and looked at the stopwatch in his hand. After completing one revolution, the minute hand on it was about to reach three-quarters of the dial for the second time.
This means that nearly 1 hour and 45 minutes have passed since they dived.
Although as an "imaginary enemy", the Great Wall 298 boat entered the exercise area earlier than the two warships, the waiting time was too long.
“Captain, this is not right, isn’t it? The participating fleet should have been found long ago?”
Political commissar Yang Shan, who was also wearing cool clothes next to him, whispered.
When a conventional submarine is completely silent, the battery can last about 8-10 hours underwater, so it does not encounter the problem of insufficient energy.
But according to the exercise plan set before the voyage, the submarine search process should only last for about twenty minutes at most.
What's more, they almost parked the submarine slightly east of the middle of the predetermined sea area, without sitting on the bottom.
As long as there is an active sonar coming over, the target should be found.
When the time comes, just struggle a little and then float up.
But after such a long time, nothing seemed to happen around me.
“We have made a mistake in our positioning, right?”
Vice Captain Liu Changlin immediately thought of the worst possibility.
Now is the critical stage before he is promoted to trainee captain. If he makes such a big mistake in a joint external exercise, he basically can't expect any development.
"How is it possible? The sextant I personally saw is absolutely correct."
The captain frowned and denied.
Yang Shan also felt that the deputy captain’s idea was too outrageous, but it was not a problem to hold it underwater all the time, so he suggested:
“How about we go up to the periscope depth and take a look See?”
After finishing speaking, he added:
"It's been such a long time anyway. Even if we go up and get found, we won't lose anyone."
Ma Jie lowered his head and thought for a moment, and felt that Yang Shan was right.
"Drain the ballast water tank and float to periscope depth!"
A few seconds later, the reply came:
"The ballast water tank begins to drain. Floating! ”
Floating by inflating a compressed gas bottle is a relatively quiet method.
However, some buzzing drainage sounds can still be heard on the old submarine 033.
For modern high-performance sonar, this sound is still relatively easy to detect.
But in this case, it doesn’t matter that Ma Jie was discovered.
“Periscope depth has been reached!”
As the boat operator's report came.
Ma Jie strode to the search periscope at the front of the command module, held the operating handles on both sides, and pressed his forehead against the eyepiece gasket.
The 033 submarine is theoretically equipped with H/SQ2-262A type sonar, but this thing only solves the problem of whether or not. In fact, unless another 033 or similar old ship is sent to the opposite side, it will be difficult to hear. Find something useful.
So usually the most effective reconnaissance equipment is the optical periscope.
The captain still remembered that when he dived before, the bow of the boat was pointed to the west, which was the direction of the fleet's sailing.
However, after searching for half a week, he still could not find any trace of the two destroyers.
Ma Jie felt a little strange and switched to the air search channel again.
Sure enough, I saw an anti-submarine helicopter in mid-air.
However, unlike what he imagined was flying towards him, the target became smaller and smaller in his field of vision, and soon disappeared directly from the skyline.
"Old Ma, what's going on?"
Yang Shan and Ma Jie have been partners on the Great Wall 298 boat for some years, and they are very familiar with every move of the old friend. When he saw the latter holding a periscope and looking in the same direction for a long time, he also felt that something was wrong.
The latter took a step back and returned the periscope to its original position:
“I saw the helicopter responsible for searching for submarines climbed up and then flew away, very fast.”
< br>"Huh?"
Generally speaking, if an old submarine like 033 is really tracked nearby by a modern anti-submarine unit, it is basically impossible to do anything except sit on the bottom and wait for a miracle. There is room for a comeback.
But just now they didn't hear the sound of the sound waves from active sonar hitting the side wall of the submarine.
The three members of the command team looked at each other, and they all saw a bit of confusion in each other's eyes.
Logically speaking, as the imaginary enemy in the exercise, they should face the joint strangulation of surface ships and helicopters in this case.
But now it seems that the whole world has forgotten them. "Snorkel status navigation, maintain current heading, advance two."
Ma Jie took a deep breath and gave the order to start the main engine:
"Go and see what they are doing."
......
Right there While several people in the submarine were completely confused, the CIC on the island city ship was already very busy, and indeed no one cared about there being one of their own submarines in the exercise area.
When they first received the news that the helicopter had discovered the underwater target, everyone just regarded it as a normal acting process, and followed the previous arrangement and called for the Barr to go for reinforcements.
Although the performance of the French military helicopter is not as good as the upgraded Z-9C, the several active and passive sonobuoys on board are still very effective equipment for searching for submarines in a large area.
China agreed to arrange joint anti-submarine exercises this time, and also for the purpose of examining the use of sonobuoys in developed countries.
However, before everyone could breathe a sigh of relief, another shocking news came from the helicopter.
"The sonar operator of unit 9686 reported that the detected target characteristics were not Type 033 submarines."
The radio operator's words instantly made the atmosphere in the entire cabin solemn.
Yang Shuyu, who was joking with the captain, instantly sat upright.
“Can you confirm the ownership of the target?”
Captain Luo Zhangming was the first to ask.
Yang Shuyu is the commander-in-chief of the Chinese side of this joint exercise, but the situation at hand has obviously gone beyond the plan, so the command has defaulted back to the captain who is more familiar with the ship's situation.
"No. 9686 said it is not possible yet, but it should be a conventional submarine that is not very large. They are continuing to track it."
Luo Zhangming's brain was running rapidly.
Except for our military, the only conventional submarines that can appear in the East China Sea are South Korea or Japan.
Today’s joint military exercise involves the use of weapons, so the scope of the exercise must be publicly announced in advance.
Type 052 is China’s most advanced surface battleship currently.
It is normal for there to be underwater villains sneaking around to collect some information.
"Confirm, how long can No. 9686 last?"
In the past, the Daocheng was equipped with two AS565 anti-submarine aircraft that were exactly the same as those of the French army. According to Luo Zhangming's experience, by this time it is basically time to fuel Running out of money.
For things like anti-submarine, if the search pressure cannot be continued, then once the opponent runs away in a certain space, it will be difficult to find him again.
“The pilot said that he should be able to carry out the submarine search mission for 15 minutes before returning home.”
The radio operator reported something that shocked Luo Zhangming:
"Can we still fly for 15 minutes?"
The navy's ship force and carrier-based aircraft force are organized separately and are only together when they go to sea to perform missions.
The two Z-9Cs were both new machines delivered at the beginning of the year. Originally, he was a little worried about the performance of the domestic models.
But now it seems that the performance is even better than the original product...
At this time, the naval aviation officer next to him interjected just right:
"When the Z-9C was delivered before, according to the technical manual given to us by the Bingfei Group, the range and take-off weight were indeed much better than the imported AS565."
As if to confirm this statement, the person in charge of the two ships The liaison officer who communicated with us immediately reported:
"The Jean Bart contacted us and stated that their helicopter needs to return after launching the sonobuoy, and it will take at least twenty minutes to prepare before taking off again."
< br>Obviously, Luo Zhangming’s judgment just now was correct.
This newly delivered domestic model does indeed perform better than the original one.
At this moment, he was suddenly full of confidence in the new equipment in his hand.
For a new piece of equipment, especially domestically produced new equipment, it takes a process for commanders and fighters to go from being able to use it, knowing how to use it, to daring to use it.
Generally speaking, this confidence needs to be achieved slowly during use and training.
Only this time, due to the stark comparison with the French army next door, the process was completed in one step.
As a result, a bold idea gradually formed in my mind——
Allowing a submarine in submersible state to approach within 20 nautical miles of the fleet in exercise state can already be said to have shown considerable hostility.
After all, this is already within the range of quite a few anti-ship torpedoes.
Moreover, if it hadn't been for some mistake, and the helicopter used active sonar to search for a location near the border, they might have succeeded.
So, we must teach this sneaky opponent some lessons, otherwise we may have to push further next time.
But having said that, this is not a territorial waters area after all, and it cannot really be sunk by others...
"Notify the aviation department... to prepare to fly aircraft 9696."
Luo Zhangming organized his thoughts and quickly issued a combat order:
"Also, hang two torpedoes and dispatch."
“A live bomb and a mine!”
(End of this chapter)