On the dark and endless sea, two Burke-class destroyers were roaring with gas turbines and spewing black smoke.
The moonlight faintly illuminated the large dark clouds above the sky. An EP-3E electronic reconnaissance aircraft was also moving at maximum speed toward Gray Strait.
In this quiet night, except for the parties involved, no one could know that a UA patrol ship sank on the edge of Gray Strait.
When the news came back, the Navy's top officials were shocked.
Akland, the director of the Energy Bureau, rushed to the Pentagon to listen to the report of the accident that happened in Gray Strait.
The conference room was full of stars, and even a presidential adviser came.
In the conference room, the video taken by the Dolphin helicopter crew was repeatedly played. Outside the conference room, various intelligence departments also mobilized all their forces to track down the nationality and all units of the ghost yacht.
With the clueless investigation, one report after another, the air in the conference room was gradually filled with thunder, and it was filled with a silent oppressive atmosphere.
"A total of 73 crew members, all of them were injured, dozens of them were seriously injured and were rushed to the Malaysian Public Hospital for treatment." General Beals, who presided over the meeting, said gloomily: "The Brownwood was even broken in half, but it was only a yacht that caused all this."
"This was a premeditated attack."
"But …"
"It seems that the people inside the yacht were also buried together." Another general was puzzled. "According to our past experience, if this was a premeditated military attack, why did the crew of the Brownwood jump into the sea to release the lifeboat?"
"They should have rushed out of the cabin and used weapons to eliminate the crew."
"Now it seems that the crew of the Brownwood was saved, although they lost a patrol ship. The yacht was taken into the deep sea by the Brownwood. No one jumped off the ship to escape, so naturally, no one survived. "
General Beals held his chin and looked at the big screen. After playing several times, it finally stopped at the scene of the sinking of the Brownwood. "Indeed, the attackers did not appear to attack the crew members who fell into the water, which seems a bit unreasonable."
"But according to the clues we have so far, the motive of this ghost yacht was an attack."
"It's just that we still can't figure out how it avoided the detection of the radar. To suddenly appear in the sea two thousand meters away from the Brownwood, what kind of power plant is it relying on to reach a terrifying speed of hundreds of knots? "
"After the two Burke-class destroyers set sail, a heavy-duty crane located in the mainland also set off urgently. We hope to lift the Brownwood and the yacht out of the water. This is a very important basis for our research on these two questions. "
The generals around the table nodded their heads incessantly.
In fact, the solemn atmosphere in the conference room had a lot to do with the ability displayed by the ghost yacht.
Looking back at naval history, during peacetime, the US Navy had records of ships being attacked.
In the year 2000, the US Navy's most advanced Aegis destroyer was preparing to head to the Gulf to participate in a naval interception operation. As a result, at the destination port, a rubber boat filled with explosives approached the middle of the port side of the destroyer, and then an earth-shattering explosion occurred.
This explosion caused 56 casualties on the ship. The whole world was watching a joke. The world's most advanced Aegis destroyer was almost sunk by a rubber boat.
But inside the Navy, they didn't feel the slightest fear of the attack. The atmosphere of the meeting was angry, not hazy and solemn.
Because this was the negligence of the personnel's awareness of vigilance, it led to a disaster. The other party's attack method was simple and crude to the point that there was no technical content. As long as they strengthened their vigilance, similar incidents could be eliminated.
But this time was different, judging from the video and the surviving personnel on board the meeting. This time, the Brownwood's response was perfect. The moment the radar found the ghost yacht, they illuminated it with flares, followed by a warning and attack.
This was the best they could do, but the ghost yacht still relied on its incredible maneuverability to avoid most of the shells and successfully sank it.
The most frightening thing was the origin of the ghost yacht's nickname.
It could mysteriously appear two thousand meters away from the Brownwood patrol ship. Did it mean that it could also appear around the Perry-class frigate, or the Burke-class destroyer, or the Ticonderoga-class cruiser?
Or even …
The core warship of the UA to maintain global maritime hegemony, in front of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier?
Two thousand meters, if the yacht launched an anti-ship missile, no alert system could respond.
Unable to figure out these things, these generals had to work in fear for a long time.
So at present, the news of the sinking of the Brownwood was strictly blocked. It was only announced internally that the Brownwood sank because of a power failure.
At the same time, it was extremely important to lift the sunken ghost yacht for research.
"General …"
"The two ships are embedded together, and judging from the topography of the location of the shipwreck, the water depth of the water is about 500 meters. I'm afraid that our most powerful crane, the Squid, can't lift them up. "When it came to marine engineering, a young officer sitting in the back whispered.
"General, not only us, I'm afraid that only one ship in the world can be competent for this project."
"It's the Colossus that saved the Sapphire."
As soon as the young officer's voice fell, the solemn atmosphere in the conference room became a little awkward.
The Colossus was known to everyone in the UA. It was a heroic ship. But the problem was that this time, they were aiming for Monster Industries, and the Colossus belonged to Monster Industries.
Now they were asking Monster Industries for help in the salvage. Wasn't it a declaration of war and immediately raising a white flag to surrender?
"Ahem ~" General Beals waved his hand and turned his gaze to Akland, the director of the Energy Bureau, who was sitting opposite him with an ugly expression and had been silent.
"Mr. Akland, the Brownwood was deployed to the edge of Grete Strait at your request. Now that it has sunk, what do you want to say? How much do you think it has to do with Monster Industries? "
Ah Lan turned a deaf ear to him and continued to daydream.
This group of Marine generals didn't understand Monster Industries, but how could Akland not understand?
There was at least a 60% chance that the ghost ship was made by Monster Industries.
After a long time, the director of the Energy Bureau, Akland, said: "Before there is sufficient evidence, we can't point the finger at Monster Industries because the whole thing is too ridiculous. We openly point the finger at Monster Industries, which means that the complete incident that happened in Grete Strait two hours ago must be announced to the world. "
"Although I suspect Monster Industries, it is obviously impossible for Monster Industries to let a yacht attack a warship and use the lives of the entire ship's crew as a bargaining chip."
"However, the Brownwood was deployed to Grete Strait to perform the mission at the request of our Energy Bureau. Therefore, our Energy Bureau is mainly responsible for this. "
General Beals waved his hand and his tone was almost harsh. "We bear the responsibility together, but it is more important than any responsibility to figure out why the ghost yacht could appear within two kilometers of the Brownwood in an instant."
"I don't know much about radar. Could it be … that the yacht has the ability to submerge? It first dived into the sea, and then quietly approached the Brownwood? " The director of the Energy Bureau, Akland, asked uncertainly, "As far as I know, the Brownwood is not equipped with advanced sonar detection devices."
"I hope so." A Marine general in charge of the submarine department said, "If it really has the ability to submerge, we don't have to be afraid that this kind of yacht will appear in front of our main warship."
"Because in front of passive and active sonar detection devices, this kind of yacht is obviously not as threatening as a standard submarine. We are not even afraid of submarines, so why should we be afraid of it? "
"But our Marine technicians have analyzed that this yacht does not have the ability to submerge."
"We suspect that its shell uses some kind of stealth technology."
Director Akland nodded, then shook his head. "Then I will talk about the speed of the yacht from the energy technology. According to the wake of the yacht in the video, this should be four water jet thrusters. "
"Traditional heavy engines or steam turbines can't reach this speed."
"I've thought about it for a long time. Only a full electric propulsion system can technically achieve this."
"It just so happens that Monster Industries has mastered the world's most advanced battery energy technology. As long as we salvage the ghost yacht and dismantle its power system, we can determine whether it was done by Monster Industries. "
"I agree. Before the results of the investigation come out, we can't point the murderer to Monster Industries." General Beals thought for a moment and added, "There are only a few big countries that can create ghost yachts. If those base organizations had this technology, why would they fight a war? They would have been sitting here with us for a meeting. "
"Monster Industries may have this technology, which means that Hua Xia's military also has it. This matter can't be done by companies, but Hua Xia's military can. They don't even have to do it themselves. As long as we find our enemies to cooperate with, they will be happy to provide people who are not afraid of death. "
"By the way, what about the horizontal freighter?" Akland said with a straight face, "We must seize that freighter. This is related to our face. We can also investigate the horizontal freighter's relationship with this incident. "
"The Burke-class destroyer will stop them." General Beals' voice was resolute. "Whether the horizontal freighter is related to the attack or not, it will not reach the African continent."
…..
At the fastest speed, the Brownwood and the ghost yacht were salvaged and became the key to solving the haze hanging over the heads of the navy generals.
Two hours after the incident, the Fifth Fleet firmly listed the public sea as a military exercise area and prohibited any unrelated ships and aircraft from approaching.
Three hours later, the EP-3E electronic reconnaissance aircraft arrived and carried out electronic reconnaissance of the sea.
Five hours later, the investigation team arrived in Malaysia and flew there by helicopter in an attempt to collect any suspicious wreckage.
The next day, many deep-sea detectors were thrown into the sea by helicopters in an attempt to find the sunken Brownwood.
When the ship sank, the Dolphin helicopter accurately recorded the GPS positioning information of the shipwreck site, as well as the latitude and longitude of the nautical chart. The error was no more than 500 meters. However, after searching for an entire day, a terrifying thing happened that made the high-ranking generals' hair stand on end.
There were no traces of the sunken ship in that sea.
The detectors only found a few pieces of metal that had been peeled off from the Brownwood.
The Brownwood …
Along with the ghost yacht, it had disappeared. There wasn't even a splash of oil that was the most prominent feature of a shipwreck.
This was impossible!
There was wreckage, and the Dolphin helicopter had recorded the position.
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