India bought six submarines from DCNS back in 2005, costing roughly United States $3.5bn in total.
Advertisement
The first of the Scorpene class submarines being built in India, INS Kalvari, went for sea trials in May 2016 and is expected to be inducted in the Indian Navy soon.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar asked Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba to analyse the extent of the leak and find out whether it is related to India or not.
“It appears that the source of leak is from overseas and not in India”, it said in a statement.
“What I understand is that there is hacking”, Mr. Parrikar said, adding that the data can not be complete as the final assembly is done by India.
The newspaper, The Australian, reported August 24 that more than 22,000 pages detailing the combat and performance capabilities of six Scorpene-class submarines produced by India in partnership with French company DCNS had been leaked.
The breadth of detail in the documents creates a major strategic problem for India, Malaysia and Chile, all of which operate the same submarine, an Australian political source with decades of experience in the global arms industry told Reuters.
The pages detail out the operating procedure of the Scorpene submarines and have been made available with excerpts released online by an Australian newspaper. “It’s part of the tools in economic war”, a spokesman said. This news story is related to Latest/145201-India-leak-submarine-papers-doesnt-compromise-security/ – breaking news, latest news, pakistan ne.
According to the report, over 22000 pages of plans have been leaked, apparently in 2011 by a DCNS official and have thrown questions on the French company’s ability to hold secret documents.
India signed a US$3.5 billion deal with French manufacturer DCNS for six Scorpene submarines in 2005 to be built in Mumbai with an Indian government-owned shipbuilder.
The Australian noted that DCNS won a bid to design 12 vessels for Australia’s new submarine fleet back in April, and the leak threatens the stealth advantages for the new submarines being designed for Oz.
But SIA had confidence in the Defence Department to manage sensitive information about Australian submarines.
Advertisement
DCNS told AFP it was aware of the articles published in the Australian press and “national security authorities” had launched an inquiry into the matter, without giving details. The Indian Navy, in a statement issued on Thursday, said that the leak does not compromise the operation usefulness of the Scorpene class submarine.
