Chapter 459 Baton Rouge

Underwater is a dark world. Sunlight cannot penetrate the seawater. When it is about 50 meters, it is completely dark. In this dark world, the confrontation between the two superpowers has been going on!

In the Cold War era, a nuclear war could break out at any time, and the reason why the other side was restrained and afraid to start a war easily was the second nuclear strike force! For example, the Soviet Union's missile trains maneuvering on the vast land, and the ballistic missile nuclear submarines in the deep ocean!

In order to counter the Soviet nuclear submarines, the US submarine forces would often stand by silently in the waters outside the Soviet submarine bases. Once they discovered that the Soviet submarines were dispatched, the US submarines would follow and play a game of hide-and-seek in the deep ocean. This game was thrilling, and at this time, many submarine soldiers who had served for many years talked about it with relish.

At this time, one of the newest nuclear submarines of the United States, the Los Angeles-class SSN-689 Baton Rouge nuclear submarine, the second Los Angeles-class nuclear submarine that was commissioned in 1977, gave up wandering in its own cruise area after receiving the order and sailed north to the Arabian Sea!

As the latest nuclear submarine of the United States, this submarine with a displacement of 7,000 tons has excellent underwater silent performance. When sailing at low speed, the noise is almost blended into the background noise of the sea water!

This is mainly due to the latest technology in the United States, the S6G natural circulation pressurized water reactor. If you want to obtain unlimited underwater endurance, you need to use nuclear power. Through nuclear fission reactions, a large amount of heat is released. This heat is used to heat the coolant and is released at the same time to heat the water in the secondary circuit. Then, the coolant is sent back. This sending back requires the circulation water pump in the first circuit. This circulation water pump can be said to be the largest source of noise for nuclear submarines besides the propeller.

This natural circulation pressurized water reactor eliminates the water pump in one circuit. This pressurized water reactor can circulate spontaneously, which greatly reduces the source of noise.

Think about the Soviets, who only care about speed and even developed a liquid nano-cooled reactor, which allows submarines to have a high speed of 40 knots underwater, but what is the use? The huge noise can be detected by the enemy from 50 nautical miles away!

There is no concept of day and night in the submarine, and the sailors work in three shifts.

As the captain of the submarine, Johnson has been under great tension these two days. He knows how difficult this mission is. Before the arrival of his own aircraft carrier formation, he has to use his own submarine to play hide-and-seek with the Soviets, delay their actions and prevent them from launching carrier-based aircraft to support the battle on land!

Although the mission was difficult, for a submarine to take on a double-carrier battle group alone, the person would be either a genius or a madman. However, Johnson knew that he had no choice. The honor of the U.S. Navy told him that he must complete the mission successfully!

At the same time, this is also a good opportunity for him. If he can sneak into the forty nautical miles of the Soviet aircraft carrier's protection circle and occupy the torpedo launching position, even if he does not actually launch the torpedo, he will be famous in the entire submarine force!

Now, all he needed to do was catch up and get in! Thinking about operating under a Soviet warship, Johnson felt indescribably excited.

"Report, Soviet aircraft carrier formation, direction 010, distance sixty, speed twenty knots." The sonar operator reported to Johnson.

Underwater, the main means of determining whereabouts is sound. Thanks to the advanced electronic technology of the United States, the sonar equipment on the Los Angeles class is also extremely powerful, mainly including AN/BQQ5D/E sonar, which is a low-frequency passive/active search/attack sonar; BQR23/25, a more advanced passive towed array sonar, which can increase the distance at which submarines can detect targets by several times! ; BQS15, which is an active short-range high-frequency (including ice) sonar.

Now, relying on the towed body array sonar at the tail, the Soviet aircraft carrier formation can be tracked at a long distance, and now the distance has approached to sixty nautical miles!

"Keep tracking, we need to speed up," Johnson said.

If you want to get under the other party, you have to be faster than the other party! Now, the other party is already at a speed of 20 knots, so you have to be faster!

As the speed increased, the speed of the propeller at the tail continued to increase and the noise began to get louder.

"The Soviets are still accelerating!" The sonar operator continued to report: "They may be taking off and landing fighter jets!"

The maximum speed of surface ships is generally around 30 knots, but they will never travel at the maximum speed all the time. At the maximum speed, fuel is consumed rapidly, so, under normal circumstances, they travel at an economic speed of more than ten knots. Now, the Soviets are in the Arabian Sea and there is no need to hurry. Their only reason is to launch carrier-based aircraft!

In order to perform a ski-jump takeoff, the fighter jet itself needs a very high thrust-to-weight ratio. At the same time, it is also very important to fly at full speed against the wind and try to provide the fighter jet with extra energy.

Now, there is still half an hour before daybreak. After these fighter planes take off, they will arrive at the battlefield just at daybreak. It seems that the Soviet front line is in a very tight situation and urgently needs air support!

This is the most interesting moment! Now, let this submarine of ours turn the enemy's aircraft carrier formation upside down!

Although our submarines are relatively quiet, when sailing at full speed, extra noise will still be radiated!

The sky is dotted with stars and a full moon hangs in the sky. The entire sea surface seems to be covered with a layer of gauze.

At this time, the sea was rippling with blue waves and the fleet was accelerating. At the same time, on the two aircraft carriers in the center of the fleet, colorful lights flashed on the decks.

A MiG-23K, fully loaded with ammunition, started its engine at the parking position, and the blazing flames illuminated the entire tailgate.

Although the young Soviet aircraft carrier fixed-wing air force had undergone more than a year of training and were fully capable of taking off and landing on the deck, most of the personnel only took off and landed during the day. The number of pilots who could take off at night was less than half of the total, and the number of pilots who could land at night was even smaller!

Just ten minutes ago, the airborne troops sent another message requesting support. They were attacked by another wave of armed personnel. They suffered heavy casualties and urgently needed reinforcements! Therefore, although it was still dark, the aircraft carrier formation decided to take off fighter planes to provide support to the airborne troops. This was the mission of their own aircraft carrier formation!

On the right side of the formation, a full-bodied destroyer, the newest dreadnought-class destroyer Admiral Tributs, hull number 415, was also accelerating along with its own formation.