The captain of the Visaka, Noonala, was observing the sea with his telescope. He had led a fleet of escorts and had been here for some time.
The salvage ship has never accurately located the location of the Keqin. After all, the water here is hundreds of meters deep.
If you go further north, the water depth quickly increases to more than 3,500 meters.
Because the area where Seychelles is located happens to be a huge undersea mountain range, but after passing this area, the water depth quickly reaches the average value of the Indian Ocean.
Even so, there are often some deep trenches here, the depth of which reaches or even exceeds the average depth of 3800 meters.
Therefore, if the wreckage of the Keqin falls into those deep trenches, it will basically be impossible to salvage it.
Nunala observed the sea surface, mainly observing the movements of the American salvage ship in the distance. The Burke-class Aegis ship suddenly left two days ago, which surprised him.
However, at almost four o'clock in the morning, the two aerial targets suddenly approaching at high speed made him break out in a cold sweat.
Fortunately, he commanded the fleet in time and launched multiple anti-aircraft missiles, accurately shooting down the two targets.
Although before the voyage, the Naval Staff had issued an order not to allow casual launch of anti-ship missiles, anti-aircraft missiles could always be fired.
This is a defensive operation. You can't let other people's missiles hit your warship and just let it go.
However, after dawn, he suddenly discovered that the American salvage ship was heading in the direction of the two downed targets, which made Nunala a little uneasy.
He left two frigates to guard his salvage ship and continued the operation. He took three destroyers and a frigate and slowly followed the American salvage ship.
Those two targets showed on their radar that they were similar to incoming missiles, and their speeds were also subsonic.
At that time, it was 80 kilometers away from the fleet, but it was shot down by his first round of anti-aircraft missiles.
The reason why Nunala dares to directly launch anti-aircraft missiles is that there are no international routes passing through here, so there is absolutely no possibility of a passenger plane.
But to the west, the aircraft carrier formation and the Tanga Federation frigate are conducting so-called anti-piracy exercises, so we must be on guard against them.
I believe that this time, I will definitely not hit by mistake.
Besides, I was acting in self-defense, so even if I accidentally hit a missile, it wouldn't be a big deal.
After dawn, the Naval Staff sent a telegram commending him for his decisive defensive actions, which gave him reassurance.
However, the fact that the American salvage ship was rushing there still made him a little uneasy.
After all, the salvage ship's radar had no way of knowing the locations where the two incoming missiles were shot down.
But why is its course so straight now?
By noon, Nunala felt even more flustered.
The American salvage ship was circling in that area, apparently looking for the location where the two missiles fell into the water.
This wasn't what made him panic.
What made him uneasy was that at noon, two US Army B52 bombers hovered over his fleet.
He used a message sent on the international communication channel to ask the US military aircraft to leave, but the two bombers only retreated a kilometer or two.
Still moving in a big circle, it seemed to be surrounding the entire fleet of Asan Kingdom, as if it was about to bomb at any time.
Nunara immediately reported the situation to his naval headquarters.
The Naval Staff immediately ordered him to immediately give up tracking the US military salvage ship and withdraw to its original position, and asked him to remember not to have any conflict with the US military.
Apparently, the Naval Staff determined that it was his behavior of following the American salvage ship that attracted the American bombers.
When he retreated dejectedly, the two B52 bombers had indeed flown away.
Nunala was so angry that she blew her beard and stared. Is this justified?
The Indian Ocean is such a big place, why can your salvage ship go there but our fleet from the Three Kingdoms cannot go there?
But as a small destroyer captain, of course I don't know what the higher ups are planning.
At this moment, it is an extremely critical preparation period. If the Americans are offended, wouldn't all plans be ruined?
From then on until nightfall, American aircraft flew over Nunala's fleet in waves, including anti-submarine patrol aircraft, bombers, and electronic reconnaissance aircraft.
They all seemed to have long ranges, and Nunara immediately understood that these aircraft should all come from the Diego Garcia base of the US military.
At this time, the US aircraft carrier battle group in the Indian Ocean was participating in the battle in the Persian Gulf area and had not come to this area, otherwise there would have been F18s above his head.
As a naval officer and soldier from the Asan Kingdom who have always imagined the Indian Ocean as their own inland sea, seeing this scene, they could hardly restrain their anger.
Many people ran to the deck and raised their middle fingers at the American aircraft flying overhead, making various mocking gestures to vent their anger.
Nunala didn't want to care about it when he saw it. It was better to follow the wishes of the officers and soldiers, which would help maintain morale.
However, shortly after nightfall, a huge vibration suddenly occurred throughout the ship. Everyone who had not caught anything fixed was knocked to the ground.
Nunara hadn't gotten up yet to see what had happened.
Immediately afterwards, I felt that the entire warship seemed to be tilted upward, getting higher and higher.
Everyone immediately slipped towards the stern of the boat, and some fell to pieces.
Before Nunara could even give the order to sound the battle alarm, he had already fallen against the wall near the stern of the command room, feeling dizzy for a while.
At this moment, he only had one thought: his battleship was hit in the rear by something and took on a lot of water.
Otherwise, why would the bow of the ship be tilted up?
As if to confirm his thoughts, there was a huge explosion.
Then, there was a heartbreaking sound of steel twisting, and then the entire battleship sank into the seawater at an alarming speed.
All this happened in a very short time. Before the warships around the entire fleet could react, the Visaka disappeared on the sea.
All warships immediately sounded the battle alarm, and various searchlights shone towards the Visaka's original position.
But the sea there has returned to calm, and although the current is still turbulent, the battleship has disappeared.
The key is that there are no surviving personnel or various debris.
A destroyer raised its flag and turned on its lights. Captain Hrithik shouted on the communication channel: "The fleet is now under the command of this ship. A submarine must have sunk the Visakha. Each ship must pay attention to the implementation of anti-submarine warfare procedures."
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Even at night, the anti-submarine helicopters of several destroyers took off immediately, and these helicopters dropped sonobuoys around the fleet.
"Captain, a huge object has been detected moving underwater! The location is..."
In the bridge control room, the sonar officer had already shouted.
Hrithik calmly ordered: "Order all ships to drop depth charges on this location!"
The fleet was originally in a circular defensive formation and was preparing to rest at night. The Visaka was originally in the center of the formation. The underwater object detected at this time was located north of the center, but it had not yet left the defensive formation.
Therefore, each ship can easily launch depth charges to designated locations.
"Boom, boom, boom", a series of dull explosions sounded.
Hrithik asked: "Was the underwater object destroyed?"
The sonar operator shook his head, "The underwater sounds are extremely mixed now and I can't hear them!"
At this time, another captain's voice came from the communication channel, "Our ship detected a huge underwater object leaving north at a high speed, at a speed of 30 knots!"
Hrithik cursed angrily, "Damn it, it wants to escape! Let's catch up and destroy it!"
"Hrithik, could this be a nuclear submarine of the US military? If we sink it, will it trigger a war between the two countries?"
"Saruq, you coward! The Visaka was just sunk by it!"
"I think there must be a reason for this. It's best to report the matter to the staff first."
"I am the fleet commander now. Follow my orders and catch up! If you want to sink it, you can ask the staff for instructions." Hrithik suppressed the anger in his heart and said.
This Saluk must be envious of himself as the fleet commander, so he deliberately came to cause trouble.
Hrithik thought angrily and ordered to the communications officer: "Immediately report the situation here to the Naval Staff and tell the superiors that we are waiting for their orders!"
"Yes, Captain."
At this moment, about 50 kilometers north of this sea area, 200 meters below the sea surface, a Faurecia-class nuclear submarine is coming south.
"Sir, there seems to be a large submarine coming towards us from the south!"
Submarine commander Gilt was shocked. How could a large submarine suddenly be encountered here? Could there be a submarine following Asanguo's fleet?