NationStates Jolt Archive

[Exercise Nordic Hammer]

HMS Kirkenes moved at a plesant five knots out from pier 6 at Harstad orlogsstasjon just as the snow started to fall again, a certain sign that auntum had arrived, having just been into port to collect the admirals and other higher-ranking officers that were going to be aboard the destroyer for the duration of this exercise. The Kirkenes was a ship in the Infernal class, a multipurpose destroyer with a distinct specialty in ASW warfare. At 212 meters long and with a displacement of 13,700 tons, she had powerful sonar systems that would guide the fifty-six ASROCs and fourty-four torpedoes she carried towards the targets. That was, if they could find them. That was the entire purpose of Exercise Nordic Hammer, a joint exercise between the Royal Cottish Navy and the Imperial Layartebian Navy where a new class of submarines, the Loke class, would be tested to the extreme. The Cots intended to put both ships, subs and aircraft against the new sub, just to see how well it would do. Four Layartebian admirals and three Cottish ones, along with some twenty civilians affiliated with the design and production of the new class would do the same.

A total of three Loke class submarines, two Cottish and one Layartebian, would be the subs the opposing force, consisting of four Fleischer-II class ASW frigates and two Infernal class ASW destroyers from the Royal Cottish Navy, and one Verrazano flight II class ASW destroyer from the Imperial Layartebian Navy, supported by two Cottish P-34/A Super Orion and one Layartebian P-8A Excalibur maritime patrol aircraft operating from land and a total of ten Cottish H-23/A Merlin ASW helicopters and one Layartebian SH-60R Sea Hawk embarked on the ships. It would be an interesting exercise, mostly operating along the coastline but also off the coast.

The ILN came with little hardware. This was meant to be a small exercise, proving the capabilities of the jointly-developed Loke class submarine. It was, more or less, a smaller yet improved Shield class submarine that used the same propulsion system but better combat systems and was more refined and advanced. Some proposed calling it Shield Flight II class but the LDC and the JCM agreed that it was an entirely different boat.

The Verrazano ASW destroyer and its SH-60R Sea Hawk would try to find the Lokes, in cooperation with the P-8A Excaliber flying overhead. In the same situation, the Cottish Lokes would be trying to escape & evade the Verrazano and vice versa.

A hundred meters below the waves, creeping only a few meters over the ocean floor, S-802 creeped at a silent seven knots, its ACSS Mark II highly sensitive sonar suite listening to what was going on around it. The orlogskaptein commanding the submarine knew that there was two other submarines in the area of operations, both of them friendly in this exercise, but he didn't know the exact location. That was another goal in this exercise: to find out if the Loke class submarines could be deteced by other submarines.

S-802 had been launched only two weeks prior, the third of the Cottish Loke class submarines to be constructed. A total of eighty-four of these sixty-one meter long, conventionally powered and highly advanced coastal submarines would be constructed for the Royal Cottish Navy, and another undisclosed number for the Imperial Layartebian Navy. So far, only about six Cottish subs had been completed, but production was still very much in progress with roughly twenty subs being constructed at any given time.

The Loke class was designed for coastal operations close to the coastline where it could take advantage of the shallow waters and many islands and shoals. Measuring 61 meters long, 6.7 meters along the beam and with a draft of 6 meters when surfaced, the Loke had a displacement of 1,250 tons when surfaced and 1,650 tons when submerged. She was small, but being fitted with six 533 millimeter torpedo tubes capable of firing both torpedoes and missiles, she could pack a deadly punch. Powered by a MTU 16V 396 diesel-engine generating 3.25 MW of energy, three HDW/Siemens PEM fuel cells giving 120 KW each and a single Siemens Permasyn electric engine to power the single pumpjet propulsor, the Loke was very silent and capable of staying submerged for up to three weeks without surfacing or snorkelling, giving it excellent endurance. The Loke truly was a weapon of war.

The first challenge for the Loke came with the ACSS picking up the sounds of turboprop motors above the surface, signalling that something was amiss. Following procedure, the captain ordered the sub to action stations and slowed her down to five knots while going deep, doing his best to keep the rubber-coated titanium hull from being detected on the Magnetic Anomoly Detector mounted along the sides of the Cottish P-34/A Super Orion circling in the area, trying to detect any of the three submarines.

This could be done by the aircraft in three ways. They could detect the metal hull of the submarine on the MAD, but that device had a very limited range of only about a hundred meters radius from the aircrafts sides, making any detection a very lucky (or unlucky for the submarine's crew) hit. They could also drop some of the eighty-eight sonar buoys the Super Orion carried in the rear compartment. The buoys consisted of two parts, a flotation device with a communications relay which remained on the surface while the actual sonar part sank down to a variable depth and listened, attached to the upper part in a cable. The buoy had two settings, passive sonar and active sonar. The first setting was the most common, aircrews using the passive sonar to detect the submarine without it knowing. It was a timeconsuming process which had a high margin of error. The second setting was much quicker and had a higher rate of success, but it sent out active sound pulses that alerted the submarine that it had been detected, making it much harder to secure a kill. The third way was visual identification, but that was only possible when the submarine was either surfaced or in very shallow (and clear) waters.

When the aircraft had detected the submarine, it could engage it with the trusty Mark 50 Mod 2 Barracuda lightweight torpedoes it carried in its belly. A total of eight Mark 50s could be carried inside the Super Orions bomb bay. The torpedo would guide itself in using the onboard sonar equipment, not really needing the passive or active sonar buoys. They were there purely for detecting the submarine in the first place, but since the aircraft carried relatively few of them, they couldn't just go dropping them everywhere and hoping for the best. They were only dropped when there was a suspicion that there was a submarine in the area, something which gave the purpose of the visual sighting and the use of the MAD equipment, which was what the Super Orion was doing now: looking for the submarines using the eyes and the MAD.

After a nervewrecking fifteen minute wait for the crew of the S-802, the Super Orion left the area, not having detected them. Taking a deep breath of relief, the captain ordered the sub to resume its course for the designated objective: an attack on the Layartebian destroyer operating sixteen nautical miles to the north-west. It crept towards it at 7 knots at 100 meters, staying stealthy and quiet. In the torpedo tubes, four Mark 68 Mod 4 Sjøorms, exercise torpedoes with the warhead replaced with a sensor pack, designed to veer off at the last moment to avoid a collision and float to the surface for later recovery; and two UGM.5/C AMESMs, these too exercise variants of the real thing with the warheads removed and sensor packs installed in its place. They wouldn't hit, but at the last minute climb into a steep climb, stalling and falling relatively harmlessly into the sea.

The Verrazano Flight II ASW destroyer was moving slowly, only about five knots. Its submarine masking systems were on, shielding the propellar noise from being detected as well as the hull noise. The ship was powered by a pebble-bed nuclear reactor, making it very quiet and efficient. This would make it harder for submarines to detect it without coming near the surface to raise a periscope or ESM mast. This worked to their advantage as they trailed a towed SONAR array and magnetic detection wire behind them. The Verrazano listened in on its passive SONAR. Its high-frequency SONAR was off since it made noise and that meant they could be detected. Once they located a target they would engage with their ASROCs.

The Verrazano embarked its Sea Hawk with its dipping SONAR already and it was making a box pattern around the destroyer between four and fourteen nautical miles. The Sea Hawk also dropped several sonobuoys operating in passive mode to detect the submarines. There were three of them out there, two Cottish and one Layartebian and while only the Cottish ones were aiming to attack the Verrazano, the Layartebian one was, shadowing the destroy, with the aim of attacking the Cottish submarines. If a launch was detected, weapons would be fired against the bearing.

At the same time, a Layartebian P-8A Excaliber was flying at 5,000 feet above the water, using its MAD to find the submarines. In addition, the Excaliber had dropped several sonobuoys too and the operators were listening in, trying to find the submarine. They were only listening now but they would go to active if they needed. Active pings would drive the submarines away, to a certain area and that was what they were doing, forming a type of circle around the exercise area. If they could drive the submarines together in a pack, they could engage them effectively. The tactic had worked numerous times in the past and now they were trying it again.

S-802 was making progress, albeit slowly. She continued to creep along at speeds of 7 knots, but the captain decided to take her up a little, to give himself a bit more space to manouver. The submarine rose from 100 meters to a little over 60, albeit very slowly to prevent any sound to be emitted from the changing pressure. The higher position in the water gave the sonar suite a better chance of detecting the "enemy" destroyer. To futher increase their chances, the captain ordered the sub slowed to five knots. They intended to find the destroyer, but it would take time. Fifteen minutes later, the sonar chief looked up from his console, pressing the headset to his ears to hear as much as possible. It was enough for the captain and other CONN personnel to become curious, a curiosity that was warranted when the chief smiled slightly.

"Sjef, jeg tror jeg har noe. Peiling to-ni-tre, avstand kanskje ti tusen. Klassifiserer dette som en mulig overflatekontakt, anbefaler at vi kommer nærmere." [Skipper, I think I have something. Bearing two-niner-three, range perhaps ten thousand. Classifying it as a potential surface contact, recommend we get closer.]

The skipper nodded to the helmsman who had witnessed the quiet exchange of words and the orders were carried out. S-802 increased speed to seven knots and moved closer towards bearing 2-9-3. They finally had something to work on.

"Gå til femten meter. Forbered på å heve ESM-mast og periskop." [Come to fifteen meters. Stand by to raise ESM-mast and periscope.] the captain ordered after fifteen minutes. They were still roughly eight thousand meters away from the estimated position of the contact.

At fifteen meters, the captain ordered the periscope and ESM-mast, which was the electronic signals reconnaissance mast which would indicate whether any radars or other electronics emitting signals were active in the area, raised. The instant they broke the water surface, someone started a stop watch in the CONN. After one sweep, the periscope and mast was lowered. The second they were out of the somewhat choppy waters, the stop watch was stopped to show how long they had been exposed. Less than five seconds. After ordering the sub back down to sixty meters, the captain, first officer and weapons officer played back the digital images the periscope had detected and reviewed them carefully.

Bingo! At the distance of eight thousand, six hundred meters, the officers could make out the shape of a warship with its side towards them. After checking a little in the database and some comparison work, it was decided that the ship they had detected matched that of a Verazzano flight II class destroyer, only known to be operated by the Imperial Layartebian Navy. The data collected from the ESM-mast confirmed that two Layartebian radars were operational in the area. From the looks of it, one shipborne and one airborne, most likely a ASW helicopter.

Pleased, they got to work inputting the required data into one of the UGM-205/D AMESMs in the torpedo tube while staying safe and silent at sixty-three meters, moving at six knots. They were silent as the grave...

Bumpski!

The MH-60R Sea Hawk had a sensitive radar, a very sensitive radar. It was specifically designed to search out for surface contacts, especially small ones like radar, periscope, and ESM masts from submarines. It was a 360° radar and worked by way of millimetric wave, giving it a range not exceeding 30 nautical miles but definitely more sensitive at closer ranges. When they picked up a small contact just 6 nautical miles away, to their 172° bearing, the helicopter immediately turned around and began to head towards it at fast speed, its magnetic detection sensors active and its dipping SONAR ready. They would drop three sonobuoys to triangulate the contact, if it was anything. They had been known to pick up buoys and, in some instances, debris and seagulls. The sensitivity was too high sometimes and other times it was too low. It was difficult to calibrate and each sea condition required extra calibration. They notified the Verrazano of the contact and immediately some things were done. The Verrazano increased the power on its anti-submarine masking system, which would help to make a torpedo lock difficult. The closer a submarine was, the easier it could get a lock, especially if it was firing from the hip or using an anti-ship missile.

Four minutes later and the submarine weapons officers had completed the preperations. They tried their best to maintain a lock on the target, but it was fading in and out on the sonar. Nevertheless, they had a brearing, and with the Navy having alerted all civilian shipping of the ongoing exercise, only the ships participating in the exercise were in the area. Add to that that for the crew of the submarine, their only "friendlies" were submarines, any surface ship was a target. With this kind of thinking in mind, the crew prepared for attack.

The sub crawled slowly up to twenty-five meters, the ideal firing depth which gave the black-painted submarine both concealment from anyone looking from above, time to escape before the weapon reached the surface and at the same time conserving their precious pressurized air stores which were used to eject the weapons from the torpedo tubes. Once in position, they were ready. Closer to the surface, it became easier for the sonar suite to find targets, both surface, subsurface and airborne targets.

"Kontakt, peiling 2-4-2. Luftbåren, høres ut som et helikopter." [Contact, bearing 2-4-2. Airborne, sounds like a helicopter.]

"Mottatt. Forbered unnavikende manørvre og lokkeduer. Siste sjekk. Er vi klare?" [Copy that. Prepare evasive manouvers and decoys. Final check. Are we ready?]

"Javel sjef. Missilet er innstillt til å søke etter overflatemålet i og rundt peiling 2-9-3 i en radius av femten nautiske mil. Alle systemer er grønne." [Yes sir. The missile is set to scan for surface targets matching the objective in and around bearing 2-9-3 in a radius of fifteen nautical miles. All systems are green.]

"Godt. Samkjør peilinger og avfyr. Etter vi har skutt, få oss til bunnen fort som faen. Forbered ultrastille." [Good. Coordinate bearings and fire. After we shoot, get us to the bottom quickly. Prepare ultra-silent.]

One of the six outer doors covering the torpedo tubes was opened silently, and a second later, the submarine shook slightly as the UGM.5/D AMESM in torpedo tube 3 was ejected. Instantly, the submarine dropped a sound decoy and started diving quickly towards the ocean bed one hundred and sixteen meters below while the blue cannister containing the missile rose to the surface in a hail of air bubbles. Six seconds after it had been fired, it popped up from the surface and the rear exploded into a hail of fire and sound, the warhead seeker searching for a target similar to that which the officers had programmed into its threat database, aquiring one almost instantly and setting course for it, skimming the sea. Fifty meters from the ship, it would suddenly climb and overshoot the Verrazano class destroyer, just as programmed to do.

Meanwhile, the Loke leveled out at one hundred and five meters and slowed to five knots, once again becoming silent as in the grave. The captain hoped the Layartebians wouldn't find them...

As the helicopter bent down and dropped its dipping SONAR into the water and its sonobuoys, it noticed something strange. There was, suddenly, a loud gush of air and the sound of firing. "MISSILE LAUNCH!" The crew of the Sea Hawk shouted as the AMESM broke the surface, heading towards the Verrazano, who had detected the launch as well. They wouldn't have much time to react but they had two VL-ASROC missiles prepared and ready, the Mark 50 Mod 2 Barracuda torpedoes on them hungry for a target. One would be set to active search and the other to passive. Once the bearing and range were entered into the missiles, the vertical tubes opened up and the ASROCs lifted off, heading towards the sky at Mach 1. The AMESM was a particular hard missile to spoof and rightfully so, its single 800 pound warhead could devestate a ship the size of the Verrazano in a single blow. The best hope they had was their infrared jamming system, which could spoof the targetting system, albeit it was an unlikely shot. However, the AMESM had a target database and that relied on positioning, something that couldn't be jammed. The other hope they had was their Phalanx and RAM systems but with a missile coming in at just a few feet off the waves and a velocity of Mach 3.8 it wasn't likely. The Sea Hawk, which was far closer and equipped with a pair of torpedoes would rely more on the ASROCs to engage the submarine as there was still going to be another submarine out there and they had to hunt it down.

"Innkommende torpedoer." [Incoming torpedoes.] The sonar chief said calmly, letting the people know that they were under attack.

"Vi er så å si på bunnen. Øk farten til syv knop og avfyr et par lokkeduer. Få oss vekk herfra." [We're practically on the bottom. Increase speed to seven knots and drop a few decoys. Get us out of here.] the Captain replied calmly and quietly, to which the crew nodded.

In the back compartment of S-802, two cylindrical objects were ejected from the reloadable decoy compartment. They waited in the water for a few seconds, giving the sub a chance to increase in speed slightly. It was still well below the maximum tactical silent speed, still being little more than a hole in the water. Hopefully, the rubber coating the submarine had over its outer hull and the secret foamlike substance between the two hulls of the submarine that the scientists at LDC (Layartebian defense contractor) and FFI (Cottish military research institute) had developed to keep sounds from getting out from the submarine would keep the submarine hidden as it sailed away.

Finally, as the sub was two hundred and fifty meters away, the two decoys started emitting sound and bubbles that disturbed the area of water between the submarine and the chasing torpedoes. It was hoped that the torpedoes would go for the decoys and lose the submarine, that was already very close to the ocean floor and not really making much fuss about itself, in the confusion.


In the air, the AMESM flew at Mach 3.8 towards the "enemy" destroyer, ignoring all kinds of jamming. The electronics in the warhead wasn't designed to pick up incoming fire, so the AMESM ignored the Phalanx and RAMs heading towards it. At one hundred and fifty meters out, it entered the terminal stage. For the /D-version of the AMESM, that meant entering a steep 90° climb, something which meant that the closest the AMESM came to hitting the Verrazano was, at sea-level, thirty-five meters. It flew over the destroyer, stalled, the engine cut, and the missile fell harmlessly into the ocean, two air cushions deploying to keep the missile from sinking for later recovery. If there were any crewmembers out on deck at that time, they would have seen a one hell of a show. As far as the exercise went, the Verrazano was "dead" and the crew of the S-802 had accomplished one of its two objectives.

With the Verrazano out of the mix, it meant that they were down one element in the battle. Even still, the Excaliber and now the homeless Sea Hawk would have to do their best. The Sea Hawk would be out of fuel in a few hours, enough time to make it to land and ditch in shallow, coastal water or the beach but they weren't going to do that just yet. They set the timer on how long they could stay out there, another hour and fifteen minutes before they would have to bug out and head towards the beach. They would just land back on the destroyer but they would be out of the running. The Excaliber, on the other hand, was on its own, completely. It flew high enough that its engine propeller noise was hard enough to hear from the submarine but low enough that it could still drop its payload.

They had 120 sonobuoys, advanced ones that could descend a sensor below the thermal layers. They had a minature side-scan radar as well, giving them the ability to map the ocean floor, if it was shallow enough. The deepest portions of the water they were operating in was a little over 800 feet, too deep for the sonobuoy to map the ocean floor but shallow enough that the thermal layer could be penetrated by the sonobuoy.

They had an approximate location of the submarine based on the shooting of the missile and the movement tracked by the Sea Hawk as it exited the area and that meant they could box in the submarine. They would drop ten sonobuoys in a pattern around the suspected route and keep them all on passive detection. When they were all in, they would hit them with a high frequency blast followed shortly thereafter by active pinging. They would find the submarine and sink it, if the torpedoes in the water didn't do the job themselves.

Far away, to the north, the Layartebian submarine was moving at 3 knots, using its passive SONAR to listen in and locate the other Cottish submarine.

The sonar operator heard the splashes the sonar buoys made as they dropped from the air and into the cold water. That could mean one of two things: depth charges or sonar buoys. Since depth charges weren't widely used any more, and since the Cots knew that the Layartebians hadn't used depth charges for several decades, they knew that the splashes were sonar buoys. That was bad. Intelligence suggested that the Layartebians had a some sort of advanced sonar buoy, but the information was schetcy at best. Still, they had to assume the worst.

The area of ocean floor they were entering was filled with rock formations, the depth of the water ranging from more than two hundred and fifty meters to a mere twenty meters. The passive sonar system was used to map the ocean floor ahead, to keep from getting any nasty surprises. They crept forward at a mere 4 knots, staying silent and almost on the ocean floor. However, they couldn't do this forever. Half an hour after they had fired the AMESM, the officers decided that the torpedoes they had heard, Layartebian-made Mark 50 Mod 2 Barracudas, the same type used by the Royal Cottish Navys surface ships and helicopters, had ran out of fuel. They planned to slip away from the net they knew the Layartebians had to be fielding, but before they could, the sonar operator threw the headset off his ears and fell down on the deck, clutching his ears. The reason was clear, since the active pinging all around the submarine had started. The sound came through the double hull of the submarine, reminding the submariners of old submarine films. Ba-wop! Ba-wop! Ba-wop! Ba-wop!

"Blås ballasttankene! Få oss til overflaten! Luftvernlag, vær klare!" [Blow ballast tanks! Get us to the surface! Air defense team, stand by!]

The enlisted man did as ordered and pressed the appropriate buttons, making the submarine forcefully eject the water in its ballast tanks with the rest of the pressurized air it had left, making it enter an uncontrollable ascent to the surface. The ascent took less than twenty seconds, at which time the large black object came up from the sea, bow first, in a angle before it came crashing back down again, displacing a lot of sea water. A few seconds later, a few sailors appeared in the conning tower, one of them placing the Cottish naval ensign in the mount while the other one was carrying on his shoulder a large circular tube with a rectangular box at the front...

"SUBMARINE!" The Sea Hawk crew spotted it first, then the Excaliber. Almost out of fuel, the Sea Hawk crew did what they could with what limited time they had left. They decided that it was worth death, albeit simulated, if they could seek revenge for what had happened. Eight thousand yards off its starboard, the submarine was a prime target for the Sea Hawk, which turned to engage, its torpedoes warming up, and receiving target information. Information would be fed to the torpedo through the radar and the torpedoes would be on their own after that, seeking out the enemy submarine with active pinging. They knew that the submarine crew had surface-to-air missiles, all Cottish ships and Layartebian ships did, it was standard doctrine. They knew that it was a suicide run but they did what they could. The Excaliber had hung back and after spotting the submarine on its radar, about 12,500 yards to its aft, it immediately went into attack mode as well. A surfaced submarine was an easy target but a threat nonetheless, especially at 5,000 feet. They had to get altitude and range and they had the advantage, being able to move at speeds in excess of 500 mph at lower altitudes. They had sufficient range now to have a long warning if something was launched at them and they could launch their missiles from even further away, the AMESM had a maximum range of some 200 miles.

When they received word from the Sea Hawk that they were going in, the Excaliber crew wished them luck and took up an orbit at 10,500 feet, moving at 300 mph. They activated their infrared jamming systems and dropped several flares. The Sea Hawk was in a perfect position and even if something was launched at them, they could initiate drop with a single trigger squeeze. The closer they got to the submarine, the easier it would be for them to get the kill. They were aiming for under 5,000 yards and for this, they dropped down as low as possible and as fast as possible. Torpedoes armed and ready, all they had to do was drop the weapons and they did...

The reaction from the two men in the conning tower was immediate. They saw the helicopter start an attack run on them. They needed two seconds, but then again, two seconds was all it took to "kill" the Sea Hawk. The man operating the Wizard launcher turned the launcher, got the helicopter in its sights, and pressed the button. Two seconds later, a loud tone started singing, signalling that the missile had locked on to the helicopter. Instantly, the Laser Warning Reciever inside the helicopter should notify the pilots. As per the rules decided upon before the exercise began, a solid lock was equal to a kill when it came to aircraft. While the Cottish submarine might be dead, so too was the helicopter and the 18,500-ton destroyer from which it came. While the "life" of the submarine wasn't that long, it had "sunk" more than ten times its weight in terms of shipping. With that consilation, the submarine captain contacted the "dead" helicopter.

"Layartebian helicopter, this is S-802, commanding officer speaking. You killed us, but we killed you too. Let's call it a phyrric victory, shall we?"

"We're dead." The co-pilot acknowledged as the LWR lit up.

"That we all. S-802. Good match. We're RTB for some gas. Happy cruise back. We owe you a round." The Sea Hawk dipped its body and flew back towards the Verrazano, destroyed and lost, to a destroyer that was destroyed and lost, leaving the Layartebians only with an Excaliber and a submarine. Phase II would see the Layartebian submarine attempting to penetrate one of the fjords.

The submarine started moving again, using its diesel engines to recharge the batteries as it went along. It would move to another sector for another exercise.

************

Phase two was about to begin. In this phase, the single Layartebian Loke class submarine would have to sneak past a Cottish ASW perimeter without detection or destruction, penetrate the defenses and enter the Altafjord. Here, it would have to find the position of the vessel HMS Jan Mayen, a command vessel in the Fleischer-I class which currently hosted the Layartebian and Cottish admirals and other dignitaries that observed the exercise. The Jan Mayen would be "destroyed" by the Loke, if it made it this far, by the use of an exercise torpedo and, upon surfacing, two red flares. Those two flares were the signal that the mission had been accomplished, and that the OPFOR had been defeated.

http://www.cgedwards.com/DMA/reg4/reg4-9b.gif

The Loke had three areas of entering the fjord. The southwestern arm of the fjord, the western arm, or the northern arm. All three had their advantages and disadvantages, but all three had one thing in common. An average depth of between one hundred and two hundred and fifty meters, and very active currents.

The OPFOR, in this case the Cottish navy, positioned its forces as follows.

One Fleischer-II class frigate and one of the Infernal class ASW destroyers were positioned at the southwestern arm, with three of the H-23/A Merlin helicopters available. One Fleisher-II class frigate and the second Infernal class destroyer and their three helicopters would be positioned in the western arm, which was the widest one. The two Fleischer-II class frigates that remained would cover the northern arm with the remaining two Merlins. To assist the Cottish ships and helicopters, two P-34/A Super Orion aircraft were available to assist. These new aircraft had the capability to carry up to 8 torpedoes internally and 8 AMESM missiles externally, as well as 88 advanced sonar buoys. The Navy had made provisions to use Alta airport, normally a civilian airport as base of operations for the duration of this exercise, and additional sonar buoys were there if the Cots should need them.

The Cottish ships had already started to deploy, and helicopters flew patrols, using their dipping sonar while the ships patrolled back and forth, using their passive sonars to try to pick up something. They had no idea where the Layartebians would come from, or when. All they knew was that they had to stop it before it did.

The ILN Loke came to a sharp halt in the Soroysundet, at a depth of 65 feet. It was running purely on internal power, meaning it was as silent as the grave. However, it was also blind. The submarine couldn't use its high frequency SONAR and it could just listen. In this instance, they would have to rely on complete and utter surprise. They would enter from the north but they weren't going to make it so obvious. The submarine was equipped with four unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), that could be used to distract the enemy.

They planned to use two of them, set to run at a depth of 100 and 400 feet. Both of them would run at 4 knots, neither using an active SONAR but rather on passive mode, making only a hint of noise, enough to be a distraction. The LDC had engineered these UUVs to sound just like the Loke's and that was beneficial. They had a much longer battery life and range than previous versions and they could be autonomous, working by an autopilot. That would be done and from halfway up the Soroysundet, the Loke flooded its tubes, moving northward. The doors were opened and, instead of a high-pressure burst, used to eject torpedoes, the UUVs travelled out of the tubes under their own power, guided along its own preset course. From there, the Loke moved towards the north entrance and descended to just 10 feet from the bottom. It ran slow and silent, the UUVs moving away from the submarine. The timing was done so that the two UUVs would arrive at the same time as the Loke. If necessary, the captain readied a third UUV to be launched down the north entrance, to further confuse the Cottish Navy. When he was close enough, he would launch that as well.

Northern Arm
The Fleischer-II class frigate was a 132-meter long, 16.8 meter wide vessel, sleek and fast, being able to travel at a maximum speed of 36 knots thanks to the power the CNE-4 pebblebed nuclear reactor provided for her. However, speed wasn't an important issue just now. The powerful sonar suite integrated into the ANDOSS Mark VI combat systems suite she had installed was. This powerful suite had been optimized for anti-submarine warfare, with a powerful sonar array fitted in the bow bulge and a towed sonar array emerging from the rear. While the fjord wasn't the best place to use the towed array, it was still employed, being able to listen under the thermal layer. For now, the sonar was in passive mode with the ship's submarine masking system employed. She was moving slowly, at 5 knots, just listening for something, anything. The frigate's sister was a few kilometers to the north, at the "fork" in the northern fjord arm, also listening. The two Merlin helicopters this little squadron had available were in the air, using their dipping sonars to listen for anything out of the ordinary.

South-Western Arm
The crew in the sonar room deep inside the bowels of the Infernal class destroyer were listening intensely for any sounds, using their sonars to listen for anything out of the ordinary. Two of its three Merlins were in the air, using their sonars. It was one of these that first picked up the sounds. After the sound had been analyzed first by the human operators, then by the database, then by the human operators again, it was decided that this was a possible submarine and the measures were being taken to locate, identify, and kill it. Both helicopters, the Infernal and the Fleischer-II that were tasked with guarding that arm were diverted, and the show began.

Both helicopters started laying down sonar buoys while the ships moved into position. Radio traffic was intense, and finally, after half an hour, they were ready. At the command of the destroyer captain, they started active pinging and prepared to drop torpedoes. In the CIC of the Infernal, a young enlisted man sat with his finger hovering mere millimeters from the small square with the words "FIRE" on touch-screen display of his console. That push would transfer the command from the console via the fiberoptic cables that ran all across the ship and into the firing computer, which would relay the info to the aft Mark 51 vertical launch system cells that currently housed some thirty-six of the ships complement of fifty-six RUM.8/D VL-ASROCs. The active sonar use showed....

...nothing! No large, sixty-one meter metallic object moving through the water. In other words, no submarine. All it showed was a small, torpedo-sized object that emitted the sound. They had been fooled! The destroyer captain was, to put it mildly, angry, his pride wounded by the fact that he had been fooled by a unmanned object. With a sour voice, he ordered the findings relayed to the rest of the OPFOR ships in the exercise. They had learned one thing of this mess: The captain they faced was a cunning one. They also knew that it was very unlikely that the submarine would try to enter through the south-western arm. Still, it could be another ruse. Send in a UUV first, let them discover it and then believe that the submarine was entering another place, at which the ships would leave to reinforce the other perimeters, leaving the scene open for the submarine captain to enter through the unguarded entrance. For now, until the other ships could report a solid contact, the ships stayed put. The Super Orions were however directed to lay down a string of buoys at the entrances of the wester and northern approaches: the likely entrance points of the submarine.

The two UUVs continued along their paths and courses, emitting just enough sound that they could be heard but, in order to hear them, it would take work. If they had to work to find the sound not only would it distract them but it would definitely give the illusion that they were onto something. Simple things meant nothing whereas complex findings meant something. The submarine captain prepared another UUV to be launched down the northern arm and did so, having it head close to the thermal layer, manuevering just underneath it but emitting above it. This would fool the enemy, they hoped, into thinking that the submarine was above the thermal layer and moving slowly. The Loke, on the other hand, was right along the bottom, moving at a slow pace, using its passive SONAR to listen for propellar noise and pinging. A high frequency SONAR was detected in the water as well, a dangerous foe for the submarine, considering that it was used to detect small objects. For this, they hoped that the UUV would be a distraction as they slipped through the opposite direction. Because the UUV was underneath the thermal, it would be increasingly difficult to actually get a fix on the object to get a clear picture of it. Because the Loke was on the bottom, it was even harder for it to be detected. The plan was working, thus far, and while the Loke crew listened to the waters and the running UUV, which, would make a double-back maneuver and begin heading out of the channel, to further distract the enemy, they planned for the actual mission. They had two torpedoes loaded, both exercise shots, the tubes flooded but the doors muzzled.

Five hours after the initial contact with the UUV in the southern arm, the in the southern and western arms had worked to try to identify the contacts they believed they had detected. After intense listening, manouvering, and more listening, and assisted by the dipping sonar from the Merlins and the sonar buoys dropped from the Super Orions, the search had resulted in nothing. The strongest indication had been that the enemy submarine would attempt to enter the western arm, and the Super Orions and helicopters had focused their efforts there, leaving the two Fleischer-IIs and their two Merlin helicopters to guard the northern arm.

The Merlins worked constantly, using dipping sonars and their manouverability to search the outer perimeter while the two frigates concentrated on guarding the bottleneck that was the narrowest part of the fjord arm. They had their SONARs on passive, and had deployed a string of sonar buoys behind them. Still, there was little room for manouvering, meaning that if the submarine indeed was in the arm, it could fire torpedoes or missiles at the frigates and they would have little chances of getting into suitable positions to escape or use their decoys and defensive armaments efficiently.

The operators believed they had something after a few hours of listening, and started concentrating on the contact, moving the ships closer to investigate, both helicopters circling over and dipping their SONARs, listening. It did sound similar to the engine sounds of a Loke class conventionally propelled submarine, and the sound was recorded and analysed by the ship computers. Sound clips of the first contact reported several hours ago in the southern fjord arm had been shared with the rest of the squadron thanks to the datalink, and the sounds were compared. They were identical. That meant that the spirits were raised, and reports of the identification was relayed to the other ships. Pleased, the Cottish ship captains ordered that the target was to be pinged twice then engaged immediately. Two active pings were released from the helicopter SONARs, followed a second later by two RUM.8/D VL-ASROCs being fired from the Mk.51 VLS cells on the forecastle of the frigate closest to the contact. They were set to go active immediately and track down the target. The firing had been automatic after the pings, giving no time to check the SONAR before firing. It was revealed ten seconds after the active pings that there was no contact reported that matched the information available about the enemy target, and that the frigate therefore had wasted two perfectly usable VL-ASROCs!

When word of that reached the bridge, the captain who had ordered it was slightly aggrivated. He had made a mistake and wasted approximately $50,000 worth of munitions. He was mandated to do so, but still. The pings had failed to detect the real submarine, and the Mk.50 Mod 2 torpedoes that were released from the VL-ASROCs moments after the launch were programmed to search for the target over the thermal layer, using their active SONARs. They didn't detect the Loke either, and ran out of fuel after about half an hour, floating to the surface harmlessly as the recovery flotation devices kicked in the moment the closed-cycle chemical energy propulsion system ran out.

The failure of detecting the submarine using the current tactics meant that a change of tactic was considered prudent by the command. One of the Fleischers would withdraw into the end of the arm where there was more room for manouvering, using its passive SONAR and towed SONAR array to listen, while the second one would remain in the arm, going over to active SONAR to try to scare the submarine. The Merlins would listen in and try to get a fix on the submarine if it indeed was there, so they could target and deploy their Mk.50 Mod 4 training torpedoes.

The short October day had turned into night as the operators in the CIC of the remaining frigate pressed buttons, flipped switches and read the numbers on the LCD screens. The Fleischer class was an old design that was being phased out of service in the Royal Cottish Navy. In fact, the four ASW frigates and single command frigate participating in this exercise were the last five frigates of the class still in active service, but they would be phased out after the exercise was over, its crew either being honorably discharged or transfered to newer, more capable vessels. They were well experienced though, having years of experience in operating the systems. They did their job quickly and efficiently, and checked the passive SONAR readouts one last time before the time reached 20.00 hours. At that time, a key was turned and a few switches were flipped, activating the powerful yet rarely used active SONAR array mounted in the bow of the ship.

A series of quick, powerful sound waves were emitted from the bow of the frigate in a northernly direction, up the fjord arm, the sounds reflecting off the steep sides of the undersea "walls" of the mountains that towered over the fjord. The thermal layer was penetrated as well, but a lot of the intensity of the sound wave was lost as it penetrated it, somewhat reducing the risks of the submarine being detected. Still, it was a last-ditch attempt to try to catch the submarine while it was still in the fjord arm, hoping it hadn't escaped, if it had even ever been there!

"We've got active SONAR, 4,000 yards ahead. They're getting desparate." The Loke was moving slowly well underneath the thermals. Its highly powerful navigation system had mapped out the undersea floor using a powerful component of the AODSSS system, which allowed it to have a virtual 3D map of the undersea floor. With the precision systems of the navigation system, the Loke could move a few feet off the bottom of the floor, adjusting its depth for objects, using the undersea mountains and walls, ditches and terrain to hide itself from the pings. Its double hull design was unique to the Empire but in this joint project, it too carried over. Unlike the Cottish vessels, the Layartebian Loke filled the spaces between the two hulls with a very revolutionary, very advanced, and very capable foam that absorbed sound from the inside and from the outside. The rubber coating on the outside of the hull added to that capability. It was doubtful the frigate, aged and due to be retired, would get a hit on the submarine and, even if it did, it would be too weak for a firing solution. The sound waves bouncing off the undersea mountains, hills, and terrain would serve to echo in the water, allowing the submarine to remain undetected. Triangulating its position was not going to be easy. Still, they had one UUV left, just in case they needed it and it was loaded in the torpedo tube. They would move a little further and then launch it out, quietly. It would move southwest, down the northern arm, and then sharply turn to the west and begin eradict maneuvers, at an increased speed, to draw out the enemy submarines and ships. At four knots, the Loke wasn't going to be caught with its pants down and its two exercise torpedoes, loaded and ready to be locked onto the target ship were just itching for a break. It wasn't going to be very far for them to go before they could safely launch the torpedoes, which would, unfortunately, give away its position.