Chapter 1588 I feel a bit embarrassed

Three days later, at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.

The exercise fleet, consisting of the U.S. Navy's Vella Gulf missile cruiser, the Jason Doohan missile destroyer and the British Royal Navy's Duncan missile destroyer, slowly sailed away from its home port of Norfolk under the command of Rear Admiral Andre Louis and headed towards the designated exercise area in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico.

After all, it's just a routine exercise. Just sending a few ships out will do the trick. There's no need to make too much fuss.

However, no one in the fleet, including Rear Admiral Lewis, knew that there were actually four participating ships:

Hundreds of nautical miles away from their scheduled route, in the warm and deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, a more hidden "observer" had already been in place.

The US Navy's newest nuclear submarine, the USS New Mexico, quietly sneaked to the edge of the exercise area two days before the fleet set off.

It does not directly participate in any exercise subjects, but is responsible for comprehensively collecting and comparing the acoustic signal characteristics of each surface ship when the participating fleet is unprepared.

At the same time, after the exercise officially begins, the Norfolk base will take off several P-3C anti-submarine patrol aircraft in succession.

These aircraft do not have anti-submarine surveillance missions, but are only used to transmit real-time images and key data of the exercise back to the combat command center.

On the surface, everything seems to be going according to plan.

But those who are familiar with naval customs know that such exercises do not begin only after entering the designated sea area.

It starts from leaving the port.

Sure enough, shortly after the fleet entered the relatively open waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the communications officer of the Vella Gulf received an urgent encrypted instruction from the combat center of the Norfolk base, and instantly shared it to all ships in the formation through the tactical data link.

"Everyone, please pay attention. This is Rear Admiral Lewis," the flagship's broadcast sounded on the fleet channel, with a deliberate sense of urgency in his voice. "We just received an emergency report forwarded by Norfolk. A merchant fleet consisting of five bulk carriers sent out a distress signal. The specific location coordinates have been shared with all fleet members."

Rear Admiral Andre Louis paused, as if giving the captains time to digest the information.

"The merchant fleet reported that there were several suspicious ships around them. The AIS information of these ships was marked as ordinary bulk carriers, but their navigation tracks, speed changes and mutual formations were highly suspected to be disguised armed merchant ships. The merchant fleet requested the maritime forces in the nearby waters to provide emergency escort..."

"..."

"Oh my God..." On the bridge of the Duncan, the acting captain, Colonel Maine Kussman, could not help but grumble in a low voice, "How can there be any threats from organized armed merchant ships these days? I feel like I have traveled back to the Atlantic Ocean in 1942..."

If he were to command a Type 45 back in World War II, he could probably single-handedly destroy all German submarines in the North Atlantic.

Robert Baram, who was sitting in the captain's seat, was also a little overwhelmed:

"Understand this... the American emergency database may not have been updated for a century..."

Of course, complaints are welcome, but the exercise mission still needs to be taken seriously.

Balam changed the subject and his tone became serious: "This should be an appetizer that the base has given us, or mainly tailored for the Duncan, to test our navigation capabilities..."

He turned to look at Kusman and said, "Tell the engine department to increase the output power to the maximum! Prioritize the propulsion system in allocating power, and sail at the maximum speed!"

Although the rank is higher, the ship operation orders should in principle be issued by the captain.

A hint of hesitation passed across Colonel Kussman's face.

He had not experienced the horror of a power system collapse, but at least he had heard of it.

"Sir, the 29 knots at rated power should be enough to meet the exercise requirements." He reminded, "Is it too risky to unlock the maximum power directly? After all, we just completed the sea trial..."

Balam understood his deputy's concerns. The shadow cast on the "Brave" could not be easily erased.

But he still waved his hand: "Trust me, and trust this ship."

"We have conducted tests in the Mediterranean and simulated more severe and long-lasting high-intensity conditions than this... Even if we continuously output full power for more than ten hours, we will never repeat the mistakes of the Courageous."

After all, Baram was an eyewitness to the Courageous accident and the Mediterranean test, so it was not difficult for him to convince Kussman.

The latter did not hesitate any longer and immediately passed the order on.

Almost at the same time the order was given, the Duncan seemed to be injected with a powerful vitality. The bow of the ship slightly lifted up and broke through the deep blue water, and the speed soared at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Inside the bridge, slight vibrations and the roaring sound of the engine were effectively isolated, and only the rapidly jumping numbers on the speedometer showed the wild release of power.

In just a few minutes, the Duncan's speed exceeded the rated 29 knots and continued to increase steadily, quickly leaving behind the Jason Doohan and Vella Gulf, which were originally sailing side by side.

"Captain, speed 32.5 knots, stable! All system parameters are in the green safety zone!"

The chief engineer's report came through the communicator, his voice tinged with excitement.

……

At the same time, deep in the Norfolk Naval Base, the precise location and status information of the three participating ships were updated in real time on the main screen of the huge combat command center through the Link-16 tactical data link.

The blue triangle representing the "Duncan" was breaking away from the formation at an astonishing speed, leaving behind the green triangle representing the "Duncan" and the yellow triangle representing the "Vela Bay".

The information bar next to it clearly displays real-time data:

Duncan (D37): heading 135°, speed 32.5 knots.

Jason Doohan (DDG 109): heading 135°, speed 21.1 knots.

Vella Gulf (CG72): heading 135°, speed 20.8 knots.

In the VIP viewing seats, Senator Paul Wicker was staring at the big screen in boredom, his eyes even a little dull.

However, when he saw the soaring speed of the "Duncan" and the rapidly widening distance, he couldn't help but be stunned.

With doubts, Wick lowered his head and flipped through the exercise briefing carefully prepared by the Naval Staff in front of him, and quickly found the technical parameter page of the Duncan.

It is clearly marked on it: “Maximum speed: 29 knots”.

Senator Wick frowned, turned another page, and found the information about the "Jason Doohan".

"Maximum speed: 31 knots".

"Gary," Senator Wick pointed at the data on the screen and asked Admiral Roughead, who was sitting next to him, "The data says 29 knots versus 31 knots, but why is the British ship now running at 32.5 knots, while our ship is only running at 23 knots?"

Admiral Roughead had already anticipated this problem.

Or rather, this was part of his design.

"Sir, the data is correct." He leaned forward slightly and explained calmly, "It's just that the so-called maximum speed refers to the highest speed that a ship can maintain stably for a long time under specific sea conditions, load and fuel conditions. In actual combat or emergency situations, it is entirely possible and not uncommon to exceed this calibrated value in a short period of time."

Senator Wake looked up at the screen and found that the speed of the Dukhan was slowly climbing, but the Duncan was already far ahead and seemed to be moving at a more stable speed.

So he asked with some dissatisfaction: "But why can't our ship reach the maximum speed?"

As a typical redneck, he naturally didn't want to see this situation.

"That's OK." Roughead patiently continued to explain, "In fact, the Arleigh Burke class uses four powerful LM2500 gas turbines. The theoretical maximum speed is slightly higher than that of the Type 45. It's just that the mechanical gearbox needs time to switch from cruising to acceleration to avoid excessive impact stress on the transmission system."

"The integrated power system on the Duncan eliminates unnecessary mechanical structures. Power output and distribution are controlled by computers, and the response is almost instantaneous. From cruising state to maximum power, it only takes a few seconds of command transmission and motor acceleration time."

As if to confirm the admiral's words, the data on the big screen showed that the speed of the Dukhan and Vella Gulf gradually began to increase and finally stabilized at 33 knots.

The distance between them and the Duncan also began to slowly shorten.

Seeing this scene, Senator Paul Wick's expression eased a little.

He picked up the coffee cup again and seemed to have regained some of his dignity.

However, the good mood lasted less than two cups of coffee.

About half an hour later, the speed curves of the two US monitoring ships began to decline significantly, falling rapidly from 33 knots to 28 knots and 25 knots.

The speed of the British ship remained steadily at 32.5 knots.

Senator Wicker froze in his motion holding the coffee cup.

He suddenly turned his head to look at Admiral Roughhead, his eyes full of questions like "What's going on here?"

Admiral Roughead's expression remained calm, even with a hint of understanding as if to say, "You see, here comes the problem."

He pointed to the screen again: "We are approaching the simulated 'merchant convoy' position. The escort mission requires us to meet and keep pace with the merchant convoy, and according to the settings, the merchant convoy's speed is 10 knots."

Speaking of this, Roughead curled his lips.

I don't know if this mission was copied from a setting from decades ago. In the 21st century, civilian ships, even oil tankers, cannot run so slowly on the high seas.

Fortunately, the two VIPs were complete laymen and were easily fooled.

At this time, Councillor Wick also understood a little: "The deceleration process is the same as the acceleration process, and also requires buffer time?"

"You're right." Roughhead paused and nodded. "At sea, ships are not like cars with brake pads. The huge inertia must be dissipated by reversing the propeller to generate reverse thrust, or by relying on the hull's own water resistance."

Seeing that the other party wanted to say something, he continued to explain:

"This is the same regardless of the drive method used, but for traditional mechanical propulsion systems that rely on complex gearboxes, the deceleration process also needs to be operated carefully to avoid the gearbox from being subjected to reverse shock. This process is often more time-consuming and distance-consuming than acceleration."

Senator Wicker's face became more and more unsightly. Even Senator Jack Reed of the Democratic Party of Rhode Island, who had been observing silently beside him, frowned.

At this moment, a communication seat in the command center received an encrypted message from the distant sea, which further irritated the nerves of the two.