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Authors: Lloyd Tackitt
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amendment.”
Adrian paused for a long moment. “Okay, you win. I’ll bow to this, but only until the war is over.”
Both Linda and the Admiral were extremely relieved to hear Adrian capitulate. But Adrian was unhappy with the decision; he had just lost his one small diversion from the huge burden he was carrying. “Tell you what Admiral, how about if you take back the surplus of pork I seem to have accumulated, and on your next trip bring back an equal weight of shrimp. I haven’t had shrimp in ages.”
Fears about Adrian’s hunting addressed, the Admiral then moved onto the subject of his visit: the friend or foe identification system. “It’s called IFF for Identify Friend or Foe. In WWII a system was devised using transponder signals that’s simple enough we can re-create it without difficulty. Basically the first ship sends a coded signal to the second ship. The second ship’s transponder automatically shifts to a different frequency and sends back a coded signal. This system has the positive ability to identify friends, but that does not automatically mean that a ship not responding correctly is an enemy. There could be equipment malfunction, atmospheric anomalies, or a friendly could be using the wrong code. Still, it gives a high probability of identifying friends from foes and no system we can devise at this point is going to do any better.”
“Speed is the key here; can we fit the ships in time? Can we make enough of them?” Adrian asked.
“Yes and yes.” The Admiral replied. “We’re already building them in several locations. They aren’t technically difficult for our trained technicians to make. We’ll have them on the ships in time – just barely in time mind you – but in time. We’ve also set up a ship-to-shore coded communications system so that we can keep track of all of our boats, know where they are, and collate the information they send back to us. That way our boats won’t be out just searching at random and randomly coming across each other. We’ve assigned them in squadrons of three boats. We’re thinking that’s the optimal hunting pack number for this operation.
“As conditions warrant, the squadrons can come together when and if a large fleet of enemy ships is located. Each squadron will be assigned a specific search area to operate within, but be flexible enough to move to other areas as target opportunities arise. And, as you suggested, our attack subs will be patrolling on the front edge of the suspected travel paths of the Chinese. The CME took out our fixed sonar detection system, losing both cable and satellite communications. But we still have the towed arrays that can be deployed by our submarines. That gives us the capability of detecting, while remaining undetected ourselves, any shipping that comes through the patrolled areas. The subs will direct our attack boats in on the Chinese boats.”
“Have you found any signs of the Chinese flotillas yet?” Adrian asked.
“Not yet, but if your predictions are accurate it should be any day now; and, of course, we expect the first signs to be directly from the west.”
“What’s our operational capability right now?”
“Eighty percent. We can launch eighty percent of what we think we can put together. Every day we gain another percent. We can put up a hell of a fight right now, but we really need that other twenty percent.” The Admiral replied.
“Let’s hope we get another twenty days then, but I’m not counting on it.” Adrian said.
Chapter 9
A t dawn the next morning, as Adrian was cooking breakfast, the Admiral pounded on Adrian’s door. “Come on in Admiral” Adrian said. “From the look on your face, I’m guessing we’ve spotted the first fleet coming from China.”
“We have, and they have several hundred ships coming at us. Probably more than that, but that’s what we can detect right now. ETA in the Hawaii area is three days, tops.”
Adrian calmly said, “I’ll wake Linda
Adrian paused for a long moment. “Okay, you win. I’ll bow to this, but only until the war is over.”
Both Linda and the Admiral were extremely relieved to hear Adrian capitulate. But Adrian was unhappy with the decision; he had just lost his one small diversion from the huge burden he was carrying. “Tell you what Admiral, how about if you take back the surplus of pork I seem to have accumulated, and on your next trip bring back an equal weight of shrimp. I haven’t had shrimp in ages.”
Fears about Adrian’s hunting addressed, the Admiral then moved onto the subject of his visit: the friend or foe identification system. “It’s called IFF for Identify Friend or Foe. In WWII a system was devised using transponder signals that’s simple enough we can re-create it without difficulty. Basically the first ship sends a coded signal to the second ship. The second ship’s transponder automatically shifts to a different frequency and sends back a coded signal. This system has the positive ability to identify friends, but that does not automatically mean that a ship not responding correctly is an enemy. There could be equipment malfunction, atmospheric anomalies, or a friendly could be using the wrong code. Still, it gives a high probability of identifying friends from foes and no system we can devise at this point is going to do any better.”
“Speed is the key here; can we fit the ships in time? Can we make enough of them?” Adrian asked.
“Yes and yes.” The Admiral replied. “We’re already building them in several locations. They aren’t technically difficult for our trained technicians to make. We’ll have them on the ships in time – just barely in time mind you – but in time. We’ve also set up a ship-to-shore coded communications system so that we can keep track of all of our boats, know where they are, and collate the information they send back to us. That way our boats won’t be out just searching at random and randomly coming across each other. We’ve assigned them in squadrons of three boats. We’re thinking that’s the optimal hunting pack number for this operation.
“As conditions warrant, the squadrons can come together when and if a large fleet of enemy ships is located. Each squadron will be assigned a specific search area to operate within, but be flexible enough to move to other areas as target opportunities arise. And, as you suggested, our attack subs will be patrolling on the front edge of the suspected travel paths of the Chinese. The CME took out our fixed sonar detection system, losing both cable and satellite communications. But we still have the towed arrays that can be deployed by our submarines. That gives us the capability of detecting, while remaining undetected ourselves, any shipping that comes through the patrolled areas. The subs will direct our attack boats in on the Chinese boats.”
“Have you found any signs of the Chinese flotillas yet?” Adrian asked.
“Not yet, but if your predictions are accurate it should be any day now; and, of course, we expect the first signs to be directly from the west.”
“What’s our operational capability right now?”
“Eighty percent. We can launch eighty percent of what we think we can put together. Every day we gain another percent. We can put up a hell of a fight right now, but we really need that other twenty percent.” The Admiral replied.
“Let’s hope we get another twenty days then, but I’m not counting on it.” Adrian said.
Chapter 9
A t dawn the next morning, as Adrian was cooking breakfast, the Admiral pounded on Adrian’s door. “Come on in Admiral” Adrian said. “From the look on your face, I’m guessing we’ve spotted the first fleet coming from China.”
“We have, and they have several hundred ships coming at us. Probably more than that, but that’s what we can detect right now. ETA in the Hawaii area is three days, tops.”
Adrian calmly said, “I’ll wake Linda
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