Empire Conquest-Chapter 772 - 58 Successful Surprise Attack_2

Within two minutes before and after, three torpedoes hit their targets.

Subsequently, Ran Wenqiang issued the order to turn south.

The two anti-submarine helicopters did not fly away, but about 20 kilometers east of Scapa Bay, they turned towards the east to return to base.

The threat of anti-submarine helicopters was indeed significant, but when compared with submarines, there was a clear gap in endurance.

Furthermore, the Royal Navy of the Bulan Kingdom would definitely not take the risk of sending their carriers closer.

Without being able to confirm that there were no Imperial submarines ahead, the Royal carriers would stay in the open sea, never recklessly approaching Scapa Bay.

In order to understand the situation outside Scapa Bay, relying on only a few anti-submarine helicopters was definitely insufficient.

Although an "Invincible" class could carry more than twenty "Sea King" anti-submarine helicopters, due to the limitations of the flight deck area and the capability of aviation operations, a maximum of eight could be deployed at one time, and usually, it was very good if four could be sent out.

Even including the anti-submarine helicopters onboard the escort battleships, an anti-submarine fleet could only deploy a dozen helicopters at once.

This anti-submarine force was at most sufficient to sweep the nearby sea around the fleet.

Otherwise, the Royal Navy of the Bulan Kingdom would not purchase and equip hundreds of shore-based long-range anti-submarine patrol aircraft.

When conducting anti-submarine operations in the open ocean, anti-submarine patrol aircraft are the absolute main force.

Perhaps, the Royal Navy’s anti-submarine patrol aircraft were already on their way.

However, even if they arrived, it would take several hours of extensive searching to ascertain whether there were Imperial Navy submarines nearby.

Several hours would be enough for "Wujiang" to dive tens of nautical miles.

In fact, in just a maximum of three hours, "Wujiang" could leave the Royal Navy’s anti-submarine search area and could then slow down.

Continuous high speed would not only create a lot of noise but would also consume more electrical energy.

Although as of today’s most powerful large attack submarine, the "Nanjiang" class was designed at no expense spared, equipped with solid-state lithium-ion batteries weighing over 500 tons, thus acquiring nearly aberrant diving capabilities, this did not mean it could continuously operate underwater. Moreover, the electrical energy consumed by high-speed travel was much more than that of regular cruising, and the distance and duration of the dive were much shorter.

In theory, if traveling at the maximum designed speed of 33 knots, it would take only eight hours to completely deplete all the electricity in the batteries.

If the diving speed was reduced to 6 knots, it could dive for over 800 hours, and the distance could reach an astonishing 5000 nautical miles.

Clearly, for submarine captains, deciding when to travel at high speed and when to travel at low speed was a crucial skill to master.

This is also a key tactic in modern submarine warfare.

In fact, any large attack submarine would travel on the surface with snorkel engaged for tens of hours in relatively safe waters or on the surface for over ten hours, using gas turbines to charge the batteries, before entering the patrol area, that is, before entering combat-ready status.

Given the opportunity, any captain would complete the patrol mission in submerged state and only surface to recharge on the return journey after leaving the patrol area.

Simply put, the aim was to avoid surfacing in dangerous patrol areas as much as possible.

In most cases, a large attack submarine’s combat patrol duration would not exceed 30 days, generally controlled within 28 days or within four weeks.

For this reason, when designing the "Nanjiang" class, the Navy proposed a submerged endurance of 5000 nautical miles at 6 knots, which is 830 hours. After deducting the 28 days of combat patrol, there would still be about 15% of the battery’s remaining power to allow the submarine to leave dangerous areas.

But this time, "Wujiang" did not leave the patrol area.

After rapidly diving for three hours, which was almost 100 nautical miles, Ran Wenqiang ordered a slowdown and immediately executed a full rudder turn.

Then, he deployed the towed sonar and continued at a lower speed for over an hour.

After confirming there were no abnormal noises coming from behind, that is, they were not being tracked by other submarines, Ran Wenqiang ordered the retraction of the towed sonar and ascended to periscope depth, releasing the antenna of the extremely low frequency communication radio.

This radio set was the most important communication tool on the submarine.

The reason was simple, only the ultra-long waves emitted by the ultra-low frequency radio could penetrate the sea water and transmit the message to submarines below the surface.

Unfortunately, ultra-long electromagnetic waves had very limited penetration ability and imposed explicit restrictions on the submarine’s diving depth.

Typically, during patrol missions, a submarine would surface every two to four hours to release the communication antenna.

Additionally, the ultra-low frequency radio had a very low communication efficiency.

For this reason, the messages sent were usually simple directives.

If complex messages needed to be sent, very low-frequency radio stations were often used to transmit instruction signals. The submarine would surface or at least extend its communication mast above the water before making contact with other means, especially communication satellites, to send complex orders.

This method might sound complicated, but it could effectively protect the submarine’s stealth.

In the event of significant developments, related instructions were also sent through very low-frequency radio stations.

This time was no different.

It took more than ten minutes to receive the first telegram.

As anticipated, the Bulan Kingdom had officially declared war on the Empire several hours ago, which was before the garrison troops destroyed the port infrastructure.

Before that, combat troops carried by three Bulan battleships had already entered Scapa Bay by helicopters and speedboats.

In other words, the Bulan Kingdom had waged an undeclared war.

Of course, this also explained an issue.

It explained why those three destroyers risked approaching Scapa Bay rather than searching for submarines in the relatively safe open sea.

This was something that made Ran Wenqiang feel very emotional, because if he had acted sooner, those assault troops aboard the three destroyers would never have been able to enter Scapa Bay.

But, what could be done now?

Even if those three Bulan battleships were sunk, it wouldn’t stop the outbreak of war, and there would still be a need for evasion maneuvers, making it impossible to assist the garrison troops left behind.

However, this arrangement also had a probing intention.

Clearly, the Bulan Royal Navy hadn’t expected that the Empire Navy would leave behind a large attack submarine, or they failed to make corresponding arrangements after considering this possibility.

By the time they became alert and dispatched anti-submarine helicopters, it was already too late.

There was still another key point.

The helicopters carried by those three destroyers were responsible for transporting assault team members, and did not perform anti-submarine searching tasks; this required anti-submarine helicopters to be arranged by carriers from the rear to provide cover.

It was evident that there might have been a problem during the cooperation, leading to a failure to connect properly!

If that was truly the case, it was a very serious blunder.

This also answered another one of Ran Wenqiang’s questions.

The Bulan Royal Navy believed they could take Scapa Bay by a surprise attack and thus did not send submarines there, let alone the most advanced Trafalgar class.

As expected, several large attack submarines from the Bulan Royal Navy might have all gone to Land Heart Sea, to blockade the Empire Navy’s control of Alexandria.

Afterward, "Wujiang" extended its communication mast above the sea surface to receive information sent from the communication satellite.

Included in this was an operation order from the Land Heart Sea Sub-fleet.

Look for an opportunity to return to the Oakland Islands, specifically the northern waters of the islands, to provide assistance tomorrow night to the officers and troops retreating from Scapa Bay.

Clearly, the Sub-fleet Headquarter had made adjustments to the deployment.

However, this also indicated from one side that the garrison officers and troops in Scapa Bay had held back the Bulan assault forces, but surely they wouldn’t be able to hold the military port.

Time was of the essence; if "Wujiang" couldn’t return in time, those dozens of officers and troops would be trapped.

However, this also meant that "Wujiang" had to take a significant risk.

In fact, as soon as he received the telegram signed "Land Heart Sea Sub-fleet Acting Commander," Ran Wenqiang immediately understood the meaning of General Li Shenzhi.

"Wujiang" was still assigned to the North Sunset Ocean Sub-fleet, so it didn’t have to follow the command of Land Heart Sea Sub-fleet, even if the acting commander of the Land Heart Sea Sub-fleet was also the North Sunset Ocean Sub-fleet Commander, because the authorities were different, thus the order didn’t carry compulsory force.

Li Shenzhi’s arrangement was actually leaving the decision to Ran Wenqiang based on the situation.

If the risk was too high, there was no need to take chances.

Unfortunately, among the garrisoned officers and troops, more than forty were from "Wujiang," and Ran Wenqiang would never abandon his brothers.