Four surface ships were sunk, resulting in a total of 6 deaths (including missing), and a huge blow to the morale of the British task force.
In the Falklands War, the British army only lost more than 200 people in the land battle. Unexpectedly, the war that the British expected had not officially begun. Their casualties had already reached half of the Falklands War, and they lost more fighter planes and ships. Almost as good as the Falklands War.
Captain James Weatherall of the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, who is also the core commander of the fleet, immediately ordered the anti-submarine aircraft and anti-submarine helicopters in Diego Garcia to begin a wider and more intensive investigation, and it must be done before the main fleet arrives. Make sure nothing goes wrong.
Weatherall also immediately transferred the actual record of the performance of Chinese submarines in last year's RINPA exercise. This is the only detailed information they have and can help them estimate the combat effectiveness of Nanjing's submarine force.
After spending several hours crumpling this not-so-thick document, Wetherall was still trembling with fear. According to analysis by people in the navy industry from various countries, the performance of China-made breathless propulsion submarines is already close to first-rate. The level of nuclear submarines is so high that American experts even believe that the Chinese-made 03 conventionally powered submarines are quieter than the main US Los Angeles-class attack nuclear submarines.
The example of Li Chun, a master of submarine warfare of the Chinese Navy who is already well-known in the world naval circles, playing with the combined fleet has been continuously analyzed and lectured in classrooms by naval academies of various countries, and is regarded as a model that combines strategy, tactics and advanced equipment. Even though it was not the first time Weatherall had heard of this battle, after studying it in detail, he was still impressed by the Chinese submarine captain whom he had never met before.
"It has excellent concealment. If you are more patient, you can ambush our task force anywhere in the water. But when did the Chinese figure out the hydrological conditions of the Indian Ocean?" Weatherall said. I have a headache. Many British soldiers do not regard their opponents as a liberation organization like rebels, but stubbornly believe that they are Chinese. At least calling them so does not seem too shabby, especially when their own side has suffered continuously. In this case, it won¡¯t be too embarrassing.
As for the hydrological information of the Indian Ocean, the Chinese Navy in this time and space certainly did not have it, but the Chinese Navy in later generations did. Since the beginning of the 21st century, it has repeatedly dispatched escort fleets to the Gulf of Aden in the name of anti-piracy, coupled with the plan to build a string of pearls in the Indian Ocean. The hydrological characteristics of the sea areas around the Indian Ocean have long been clear. These information naturally followed Qi Yiming's database into the hands of the PL Navy and the Nanjie Navy.
The staff of the Royal Navy suggested to Wetherall: "The enemy's submarines pose a serious threat to our fleet, and this time is not like a RINPAC exercise. They have sent more of these advanced submarines. Our The pressure is great. In addition to having anti-submarine aircraft step up reconnaissance, we should also dispatch two nuclear submarines in our fleet to counterattack. No matter how good their conventional submarines are, their firepower, speed and other indicators cannot match our nuclear submarines. ¡±
Weatherall nodded, convinced that although the task force did not bring many nuclear submarines, one Trafalgar class and one Fast class were enough to deal with four or five Chinese submarines. At least Weatherall and His colleagues thought so.
Another staff officer suggested: "According to the intelligence we have, China-made AIp submarines have very diverse capabilities. They can not only launch heavy torpedoes and submarine-launched anti-ship missiles. During the RINPAC exercise, they also demonstrated With powerful and efficient mine-laying capabilities, our naval strength near the Diego Garcia base is not yet strong enough to detect the enemy's moves. Perhaps we should send out minesweepers to clean up before our fleet moves in. "
This suggestion was quickly adopted. The British fleet brought two minesweepers. They were small and slow and were dragged behind the fleet. At this time, Weatherall decided to be cautious and had to Waited for these auxiliary ships to catch up.
He soon felt lucky for his decision, because when the two minesweepers arrived at the outskirts of the Diego Garcia base, they actually scanned nearly a hundred mines of all kinds, from drifting mines to deep-anchored mines, and even The British Army had never seen a new type of mine. In order to sweep away these terrible things, a minesweeper even suffered a loss. It did not expect its powerful impact when carrying out the detonation operation, and almost sunk the ship.
Weatherall kept cursing: "The Chinese are too sinister."
However, after some twists and turns, the British army finally arrived at the port of Diego Garcia, but two main battleships had been taken away, including the only Type 8 destroyer. Fortunately, after that naval battle, the South The Nanyang News Agency stopped reporting on the incident, and the British were even more unwilling to expose the scandal. The reporters on the ship were all controlled and were not allowed to release news. Hehe, what they say about Western countries paying attention to press freedom is actually determined by their own interests.
Several large Hunter anti-submarine aircraft and some Lynx anti-submarine helicopters patrol and search the waters near the Diego Garcia base almost continuously, makingThe liberated submarine force did not dare to approach this area again easily. The two 0 submarines in Qi Yiming's hands are regularly deployed on the route from Diego Garcia to Malacca. Because the endurance of conventionally powered submarines is limited, Qi Yiming has no submarine support ships installed to help with supplies, so he has to adopt rotation. system.
Within four days, two submarines returned from the front line to the naval base in Lumut, Perak. Two more submarines were sent to the front line. Then four days later, two more submarines on the front line were almost exhausted. Return to base for supplies. This forms a 16-day submarine cycle, which is also the mission time for the 0 submarine to maintain normal non-floating, and the supply time of food and drinking water under the maximum load.
Having ensured the safety of the sea area within a hundred kilometers around the Diego Garcia base, Weatherall began to prepare for further detection farther away. Compared with the aggressive British cabinet, Weatherall, as a real soldier, would not take the lives of himself and the sailors in the fleet because of the decisions of politicians.
His choice is also more targeted, which is the route to the northeast of the Strait of Malacca. Of course, this choice is also dangerous. If the search range is too narrow, the Nanjing Navy submarines that may be ambushing on both sides of the route can also give them a fatal blow. Weatherall knew very well that the task force could no longer endure greater losses. They had to achieve some decent results, at least to give an explanation to the brainless idiot politicians in the government.
So with the cooperation of several destroyers, frigates, nuclear submarines and anti-submarine aircraft in the sky, the British army began the task of slowly clearing the channel.
"Even when we faced the Germans' unrestricted submarine warfare, we were not so cautious." Wetherall was a little sad. The sun really doesn't set on Britain anymore. Even the loss of one or two ships and aircraft will be Seeing is extremely important.
On the first day of expanding the scope of the reconnaissance, the British got lucky. A hunter anti-submarine aircraft that scattered buoys all over the sky received a weak underwater sound signal, which they had never heard before. .
¡°It must be a Chinese submarine, it must be,¡± the electronic warfare officer on board shouted excitedly.
"Hurry up and cast the devil ray" is different from P3. Although the hunters at this time have a larger range and search range, they cannot carry anti-ship missiles such as harpoons, so they can only deal with underwater opponents with deep bombs. and weapons such as torpedoes. The Stingray (TTUA) is a 34mm lightweight torpedo that has been put into use by the UK since 1983. It is roughly on the same level as the US military's Nk46 and the Chinese Fish.
After the two stingrays were dropped, the personnel on the anti-submarine aircraft waited with anticipation for an explosion in the water. A moment later, a boom came through the listener's earphones, and the British army clapped their hands to celebrate: "hit."
Naturally, a large anti-submarine aircraft cannot hover in a small area for a long time and check the results, so the hunting fans called a Leander-class frigate to come over and check. What everyone didn't expect was that as soon as the frigate arrived at the outer edge of the coordinate sea area, a splash of water rumbled along the side of the ship.
The captain of the frigate shouted: "It's a mine, pay attention to avoid it"
The officers and soldiers on the ship couldn't help but yelled: "Who the hell would lay mines in such open water? Is your head broken?"
Normal people would indeed not lay mines in the middle of the vast sea, but the cunning and cunning Nanjie submarine force used a little trick to make such unreliable mines effective. The strange underwater sound signal discovered by the hunting fans just now is indeed the underwater sound signal of the submarine, but it is the underwater sound bait launched by the 0 submarine, which emits a underwater sound similar to that of a submarine to confuse the opponent. When the hunting fans dropped two manta rays, an explosion occurred in the water. In fact, it was possible that the torpedo was detonated by a magnetic floating mine in the water, causing the explosion sound.
The anti-submarine aircraft could not determine whether the submarine was really sunk, so it called a nearby frigate to come over to check the results. Who knows, but it sent its comrades into the floating mine array thrown in this sea area. The British army did not bring many minesweepers. One was still injured and repaired in the waters near Diego Garcia. The other one also focused on protecting the base. When opening up the route, no one thought that it was in such a wide sea area. , who would use a low-end, cheap and unartistic weapon like a water mine to deal with others.
For submarine operations, they pay attention to completely different routines from surface ships. Deception and disguise are synonymous with them. They can kill with one hit, and then walk away, just like a real assassin, coming and going without a trace.
Just when the British army was annoyed that they had fallen into the trap of the Nanjing Liberation Army submarine again, another of their nuclear submarines sent a distress signal more than 70 nautical miles away.
¡°¡MadaMada, our ship is surrounded by multiple enemy submarines¡¡±