Echo Class Read Online Free Page B

group.
    â€œLast position we had on the Americans put them northeast of our position,” Ignatova said as he flipped open the sound-powered tube. “Simulate opening missile hatches!”
    Bocharkov put a hand into his pocket and pressed the button on the side of the stopwatch.
    A reply echoed up from the tube. “Simulating opening missile doors!”
    A spot of motion caught Bocharkov’s attention. He shifted the binoculars to the left, scanning the horizon. There it was again. Not quite clear, but something caught his eye. Something several degrees above the horizon. On a clear day at sea, the horizon was always twenty-four kilometers from your vessel. Fifteen miles, the Americans would say in their ancient system of measurements. What stubborn people the Americans could be. The rest of the world says, “Okay, we’ll all switch to metrics.” Not the Americans. “Too much trouble, we’ll stay with our English measurements.”
    â€œCaptain,” Ignatova said.
    Even the British were changing to the European metric system.
    â€œCaptain,” Ignatova said again.
    Bocharkov lowered the binoculars. “What is it, XO?”
    â€œThe missile doors are simulated open.”
    Bocharkov glanced forward where the near-circular outline of the missile doors covered the cruise missiles. Real-time, it would take nearly five minutes to prepare for launch and another couple of minutes to actually launch the missiles. Seven minutes was a lot of time to be on the surface of the ocean in the daylight. He had only launched twice in his career. Both launches were off Kamchatka during a live fire exercise.
    He pulled the stopwatch from his pocket. Two minutes had passed.
    â€œLet’s give it five more minutes, XO. Two minutes is a little too much to expect, don’t you think?”
    The P-5 cruise missile was a magnificent missile, specifically designed to take out American aircraft carriers. It had a range of over three hundred fifty kilometers. Someday the Soviet Navy would be able to confront the Americans ship-to-ship, but in the meantime cruise missiles and the Soviet Naval Air Force would level the playing field. A massive number of cruise missiles arriving nearly simulateously from over the horizon—coordinated through command, control, and communications with everyone to create an ocean Armageddon of missiles fired by submarines, surface ships, and aircraft operating at staggered distances. Everything designed for the missiles to arrive at an American battle group simultaneously.
    Bocharkov took a deep breath of patriotic pride over Admiral Gorshkov’s strategic plan for winning the war at sea. Overwhelming might could be defeated by overwhelming fast and deadly weapons. And it was submarines that would make the difference. The Americans learned it during the Great Patriotic War. The Germans tried it in World War I and the Great Patriotic War. The Great Patriotic War forced the Soviet Union to start growing a submarine force.
    Once launched, the wings of a P-5 cruise missile would unfold and it would zoom off toward the horizon at subsonic speed, leaving a spiraling contrail behind it as it sped toward its target. Bocharkov had six to fire and each had to be released separately. Once the first was fired, the others could be launched quickly, one after the other. Still, throughout the launching and the flight of the P-5 missiles, the submarine would remain on the surface—vulnerable to attack.
    â€œSir, I have an aircraft bearing three-three-zero relative off the bow!” shouted the starboard starshina, his finger pointing toward the horizon.
    He was pointing to where Bocharkov had thought he detected motion a few moments earlier. Borcharkov glanced up at the periscope to see if the radar was active. It was open and turning, but he felt none of the static electricity associated with what the NATO countries called the Snoop Tray radar. He had not given permission to