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Submarine data ‘can be protected’

“I have asked the navy chief to investigate the matter and find what has been leaked and how much of it is about us”, he said.

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The Australian said DCNS disguised that the leak may have come from India rather than France.

In india, defence minister Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday sought a report from the Navy on the leak (See: Scorpene leak: Parrikar seeks report from Navy chief).

“The available information is being examined at Integrated Headquarters, Ministry of Defense (Navy) and an analysis is being carried out by the concerned specialists”.

While India is said to be investigating the leak, Uday Bhaskar, a former naval officer, told Reuters that if established, it would significantly compromise the credibility of the Scorpene submarines. It is to be some of the most advanced submarines in their class. “It needs to be verified if the leaked documents are authentic”, an MDL official said reacting to the reports of the massive data leak.

Earlier today, a report in Australian media revealed that sensitive information related to India’s Scorpene submarines has been leaked, with French shipbuilder DCNS, which designed the submarine, facing a leak of documents spreading over 22,000 pages. “The first step is to identify, the second step is to identify the extent of unwarranted, but it is not all 100 percent, because we do have our final integration”, Parrikar said.

The Indian government signed a $3.5 bn deal with French manufacturer DCNS to build six Scorpene submarines.

Scorpene data leak: Sources have told FE Online, that the data that has been leaked, is dated. – Wikipedia picKUALA LUMPUR, Aug 25 ― Malaysia’s Scorpene submarines have different specifications from those used by India, the Defence Ministry said in allaying concerns over a secret data leak reportedly hitting the French submarine supplier DCNS.

The leak has raised doubts about the security of a separate DCNS submarine project in Australia where it is locked in exclusive negotiations after seeing off rivals for a A$50 billion ($38 billion) contract to build the Barracuda next generation of submarines.

DCNS said that they are aware about information has leaked in Australian press and “national security authorities” had launched an inquiry into on the matter without giving any details.

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It could not immediately authenticate the documents, but would not rule out that the leak was part of an “economic war” waged by the competitors it beat in the contest for the Australian contract, DCNS said.

Independent senator Nick Xenophon wants a Senate inquiry into leaks from Australia's submarine contractor