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Name |
V-408 Victorious |
USS CHICAGO SSN-721 |
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Type |
TYPE-093A |
Los Angles I |
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Size |
C-3 |
C-3 |
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Length |
130m |
362’(110m) |
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Tonnage |
7000 |
5759 |
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Hull |
130 |
110 |
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Armor(Damage Reduction) |
20 |
20 |
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Defense |
2 |
2 |
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TL |
27 |
32 |
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Noise |
-5 |
-4 |
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Maneuver |
4 |
4 |
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Speed (Knots) |
32 (10 Silent) |
20 (15 Silent) |
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SENSORS |
+3 |
+3 |
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EW/ECM |
9 |
10 |
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CREW QUALITY |
13 |
16 |
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WEAPONS |
6x Hvy Torpedoes [24] |
4x Hvy Torpedoes [27] |
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8xYJ83SSM[8] |
12xHrpIIERSSM[12] |
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The Victorious vs We Will… Apra Harbor Guam [I am sitting with Captain of the USS SSN 24 SEA DRAGON, the then Captain of the USS Chicago SSN 721, at a Starbucks overlooking the Apra Harbor. My first question for the captain is where was he when he had found out Congress had voted approval for military action to support Taiwan.] “I was in the wardroom with the chief engineer talking about the “Okane Cribbage board when an Ensign Jones brought in the message about the commencement of hostilities.” [“What Cribbage board?”] “Richard “Dick” O’Kane, greatest American submarine Ace to date. Sank over 229,000 tons of shipping in the Pacific during WWII. In keeping with a tradition that dates back to World War II, The O'Kane's Cribbage Board was transferred from the Olympia's Wardroom to the Chicago's when the Olympia was decommissioned on 31 October 2019. The USS Chicago (SSN-721) thus became the "Oldest Fast Attack Submarine in the 7th Fleet" and The O'Kane Board was transferred to her wardroom. It was sometime after 3pm IN DC, the previous day, May 1st. Where the Chicago was patrolling was 70 miles off Guam, and it was 1am. We also hear at that same time that a group of PLAN commandos had been captured attempting to blow up the fuel and ammo dumps here at Apra. We had been at high alert for the past few days with the Taiwanese crisis and had made on and off again contact with a bogie. We were now pretty sure it was the same Chinese nuke that dropped off the commandos. I returned to the bridge, ordered the helms men to take us down till we hit a thermal layer then we went on silent running. Once there we slowly moved along and listened.” [“Did you find them first or did they find you”] “Hard to tell. We moved slowly east listening. When we found them, we picked up the speed a bit to close in on them. In open hostilities, which had just been opened, submarine warfare is sort of a shoot first you live, shoot second you die affair. [“You did confirmed the submarine was V-408, a hostile PLAN SSN over an hour before you sank her. Why did you wait so long?] We knew it was them from the submarine’s sound signature. It’s a method used by us and the Russians since the 1960s, and by the 21st century the Chinese PLAN too. The USN, the Russians and the PLAN all have recorded and catalogued all our “Enemies” submarines as many times as possible as soon as they put to sea. All the major powers do it. Our allies do it too and we share our information with them as they do theirs. Yes we knew it was the PLAN V-408 “Ever Victorious” which is their own name for their boat. We had recording of her for the past ten years, her entire life. The Chinese had recordings of the Chicago form her 35 years of service, she was a well-known boat. To answer your question though, we had to get within range and the Chinese boat was fast. If they had been smart they should have just ran. They didn’t, their skipper must have believed their communist parties propaganda that their ships were now all superior to yours. He decide to go silent and slow and gave up his only advantage he had. [“What was it like going up against one of China’s Newest Attack submarines in an old Veteran like the Chicago? A 35 year ship?] I wasn’t worried, the TYPE -093A may have been their newest, they never did get to complete the TYPE 095, but like I said the class had been around for over ten years and despite all the talk about Chinese science superiority and losing all those great cell phone factories in China during the war, their submarine architecture was still decades behind us. [“Yet they fired first is that correct?] Yes, that’s all in the Bridge Audio Video log was shared with the press. We fired soon after. The difference was our counter measures and training saved us or at least the crew. She did make it back to Apra own her own power at least. The “Ever Victorious” was, however is no more… |
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