Tom Clancy is a great writer. I am a techno buff in some ways also and like finding errors. (I know, I know).
Anyway in "The Hunt for Red October" the electro-magnetic drives of the sub would have been a quick giveaway as to its location. Once the USS Dallas found it any MAD (Magnetic Anomoly Detector) equipped aircraft could have followed it VERY easily.
In "Red Storm Rising" when the FF-10(something) was hit he had the blast zig-zagging around the ship. He had the compartments stacked wrong. I know, I served 3 years on a Knox Class, the USS Elmer Montgomery FF-1082.