Tiger's Claw by Dale Brown

Author:Dale Brown [Brown, Dale]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780062099105
Google: 5R4xrf06e_UC
Amazon: 0061990019
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2012-09-04T00:00:00+00:00

SPRATLY ISLAND, SOUTH CHINA SEA

SEVERAL WEEKS LATER

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam’s Gepard-class frigate, HQ-013 Cá map, or Shark, was on patrol near the Vietnamese-occupied Spratly Island. The frigate was Vietnam’s newest warship, Russian designed but license built in Vietnam. It was purpose built for antisubmarine warfare (ASW) with a helicopter with dipping sonar and armed with torpedoes, a variable-depth sonar, four torpedo tubes, and an RBU-6000 multibarrel rocket launcher that sprayed antisubmarine rockets in a dense pattern that were programmed by the fire control officer to detonate at a specified depth. Fast and agile, it was the pride of the Vietnamese navy.

The HQ-013’s shallow draft of only fifteen feet made it the perfect vessel to patrol within the reefs, sea mounts, and sandbars near the Vietnam military communications facility of Spratly Island. Only thirty-five acres in size but with a population of almost a thousand—mostly army and navy soldiers—the island was the fourth largest in the Spratly Islands archipelago and the largest of the islands occupied by Vietnam. The island was bisected by a two-thousand-foot-long coral and sand runway that ran the entire length of the oblong-shaped island. A jetty on the southeast side of the island extended past the reef surrounding the island, where the water dropped to almost six thousand feet deep in an almost vertical wall, and a long pier was built at the end of the jetty large enough for ferries and big supply vessels making the fifteen-hour cruise from Ho Chi Minh City and to support the many fishing vessels that plied these waters.

Although the Vietnamese Navy communications detachment there was real and provided a radio and telephone link between fishing vessels and the mainland, in the age of satellite communications the detachment was mostly superfluous—its real mission was to maintain a strong military presence on the island to reinforce Vietnam’s claim on it and eleven other islands and cays it occupied in the archipelago. Five other countries claimed islands in the Spratlys, and two other countries, the People’s Republic of China and the Philippines, claimed ownership of the entire archipelago.

The captain of the Shark, Thuong tá (Captain) Dang Van Chien, was on the bridge sipping a mug of tea. Thin and athletic, the veteran sailor was obviously enjoying being in command of one of his country’s finest pieces of military hardware. He could not sit still: if he was not on the bridge marveling at the electronic controls and extensive communications systems, he was in the combat center or the engine room, studying everything and asking to be briefed on how something worked. He knew he was making a nuisance of himself, but he was the captain, and he felt it was his responsibility as well as his right to ask his sailors about their specialties.

Dang checked his watch and smiled. They had scheduled a surprise gunnery exercise, and that would start in a few minutes. Only he and a few department heads knew about it. Their target was an old fishing vessel that

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