A report says that, The secret combat capabilities of India’s new Scorpene-class submarines designed by French shipbuilder DCNS for the Indian Navy have been leaked.
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The statement said that the Indian Navy has taken up the matter with Director-General of Armament of the French Government expressing concern over this incident and has requested them to investigate this incident with urgency and share their findings with the Indian side.
Paris: Documents relating to Indian submarines were stolen from French naval contractor DCNS and not leaked, people familiar with the matter said in French government said on Thursday, adding that the information published so far showed only operational aspects of the submarines.
DCNS is also under contract to build 12 new submarines for Australia at a cost of $39 billion. Navy Chief has been asked to analyze as to what exactly has been leaked.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had also sought a report from the Indian Navy on the matter.
The first of the six submarines, INS Kalvari, is likely to be inducted into the Indian Navy by the end of 2016. The program has suffered years of delays, but the remaining five submarines are scheduled to be delivered by 2020. “What I understand is that there is hacking”. The available information is being examined at Integrated Headquarters, Ministry of Defence (Navy) and an analysis is being carried out by the concerned specialists. Brazil is also due to deploy the vessels from 2018.
A massive leak of documents on India’s new military submarines from French shipbuilder DCNS is the result of a hack, the country’s defence minister said on Wednesday.
“It appears that the source of the leak is from overseas and not in India”, the Ministry said in an online statement.
According to The Australian, the leak includes details of the secret combat capability of these submarines, including underwater sensors, above-water sensors, combat management system, torpedo launch system and specifications, communications system and navigation systems.
However, The Australian newspaper cites a source that said the breach occurred in 2011 when a French Navy officer working as a DCNS subcontractor had left the company. “So we will find out all this”, Parrikar told newspersons in Delhi.
The Australian reported that DCNS implied the leak may have come from India rather than France.
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DCNS initially suggested the leak might be at the Indian end, but the data leaked also relates to the French firm’s plans to sell frigates to Chile and an amphibious ship to Russian Federation, the report said.
