Men of War (2013) by John Schettler Page B

the
ceremony for all it was worth. Yet through it all there was a kind of reserved
shock when the other sailors and officers assembled on the quays saw the damage
the ship had sustained. Kirov was missing her Top Mast radar sets, there was a
raw gash on the aft quarter, and obvious damage to the superstructure behind
the secondary mast where fresh paint and a canvass tarp now hid the worst of
the wreckage inflicted by Hayashi’s D3A1 dive bomber.
    The
rumor that the ship had endured these insults when Orel blew up on sea
trials provided little comfort, as it spoke only to the continued incompetence
of the service, still struggling to reach the lofty goal set in 2011 of
building 100 new ships before 2020. Most of these were to be smaller frigates,
corvettes, and new submarines, accounting for about seventy of the planned
additions. The remaining thirty would see some real new teeth put into the
fleet, including two new nuclear aircraft carriers that had been planned,
though neither had been completed. The fleet still had little reliable seaborne
air power, and therefore could never hope to fulfill the long held Russian
dream of becoming a real blue water navy.
    China
went shopping and bought up most of the older Soviet era light carriers. Kiev was now a floating hotel, and Minsk an amusement park. The second Kuznetsov class hull, named Varyag before it was sold to the Chinese, was now
the Liaoning , the ship once fated to die at the hands of an American
submarine in the growing squabble over Taiwan, as least insofar as one
Australian newspaper had it. Russia’s only fleet carrier to speak of was this
ship’s elder brother, Admiral Kuznetsov , which had also been moved east
when the Russians had been quietly informed that China was planning a ‘major
operation’ in the near future.
    One
relatively new frigate with the all new carbon fiber superstructure and stealth
design had been assigned to the Pacific Fleet, the Admiral Golovko , laid
down in 2012. Two more were expected soon. The Project 21956 destroyers were
also still largely incomplete, though one such ship, now named the Orlan ,
or Sea Eagle, was proudly berthed at Vladivostok next to the new
arrival.
    Kirov was given a proverbial ‘wide berth’ off the concrete docks near Korabelnaya Street. Admiral Volsky knew, as Karpov had warned,
that the Naval Inspectorate would be arriving within days, so he huddled with
his Chief Engineer Dobrynin to see what could be done about the reactor control
rod they now suspected as the cause of the strange displacement the ship had
experienced—Rod-25.
    “What
can we do with it, Dobrynin? Can we risk leaving it here on the ship?”
    “If
we do, sir, then what might happen the next time we have to do rod
maintenance?”
    “Yes,
it would be most disturbing if the ship were to suddenly disappear again while
berthed in the harbor! Can it be removed safely? Stored somewhere?”
    “That
would take some doing, Admiral, but it might be transferred to the Primorskiy
Engineering Center across the bay. We have a diagnostic rod test-bed facility
there, and I could study it more closely. We would put it in a radiation safe
container, then barge it across the bay to the commercial pier and truck it up
the hill to the center.”
    “I
will cut the orders,” Volsky said quickly. “Anything you need will be provided.
But I want this to seem routine. I want to avoid calling undue attention.”
    “I
understand, sir. I can just write up a standard rod replacement order—not
unusual at all after a long cruise like this. In fact, I may have to replace
rods five and seven as well. I can ask for a new spare to fill in for Rod-25.
It is nothing unusual.”
    “Good,
Dobrynin. Get the damn thing off the ship as soon as possible, then, eh?”
    “I’ll
have it moved tomorrow, sir.”
    “Perfect…
But I think we should have a man there at all times, to keep watch on it. You
know how things get shuffled around from one place to another. Someone