“This serious matter is thoroughly investigated by the proper French national authorities for Defence Security”.
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According to The Australian, the leak details the entire secret combat capability of the six Scorpene-class submarines that French shipbuilder DCNS has designed for the Indian Navy.
First revealed by The Australian, the leak exposed 22,000 pages detailing the secret capabilities of six Scorpene-class vessels now in production.
The Ministry stated that the leak appears to be from an overseas source and not in India.
The leaked documents were marked “Restricted Scorpene India” and listed the combat capabilities of India’s new submarine fleet, The Australian said.
Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar told reporters that he asked the navy chief to determine what information was exposed. “So we will find out all this”, Parrikar had said.
“There is India, Australia and other prospects, and other countries could raise legitimate questions over DCNS and its part of the tools in economic war”, she said.
The leaked data include details of the frequencies at which the submarines gather intelligence, the levels of noise they make at various speeds and their diving depths, range and endurance all sensitive information that is highly classified, the Australian said.
Based on the Scorpene design, and dubbed the Kalvari class, the first diesel-electric boat is due to enter service by the end of this year.
Details about the Shortfin Barracuda submarine class that will be built for Australia were not contained in the leak. Apart from sending shockwaves in the Indian defence establishment, it has also alarmed countries such as Malaysia, Chile and Brazil, which are either operating or have ordered a variant of the Scorpene, reports said.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull sought to deflect concerns about the leak, touting the high security standards in Australia, where the submarine will be built.
The Scorpene submarines are being built and integrated at Mazagon Docks Ltd.in Mumbai in India’s western state of Maharashtra, with the technological and financial support of DCNS.
“I am very concerned about this”, Senator Xenophon said.
A DCNS spokesman told The Australian any “uncontrolled technical data is not possible in the Australian arrangements” and that multiple independent controls existed within the company to prevent unauthorised leaks and data movements.
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The data is believed to have passed through firms in South-east Asia before eventually being mailed to a company in Australia, the newspaper said.
