According to the Indian ministry of defense, the said leak of documents related to Scorpene submarines is being examined and an analysis is being carried out by the concerned specialists.
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A company spokeswoman said: “Competition is getting tougher and tougher, and all means can be used in this context”.
The Australian said that the leak will also cause alarm at the highest level in countries that operate a variant of the Scorpene, or have ordered the submarine, including Brazil, Chile and Malaysia.
The leaked documents were marked “Restricted Scorpene India” and gave the combat capabilities of India’s new submarine fleet, The Australian said.
French naval shipbuilding company DCNS has been hit by a massive data leak related to its submarines, prompting India to investigate the extent to which secrets about its Scorpene submarines have been affected.
The Hindu newspaper said Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has called for an investigation, and blamed the incident on hackers.
Details about the Shortfin Barracuda submarine class that will be built for Australia were not contained in the leak.
DCNS also won a bid in April to design Australia’s new $50 billion submarine fleet, and the report said the leak could affect the security of top-secret data on the submarines.
The combat capability of the Scorpene submarines being built at Mazagon dock at a cost of Dollars 3.5 billion by French shipbuilder DCNS, went public when an Australian newspaper, “The Australian”, put the details on the website. The first of the submarines built at the Mazagon Docks in Mumbai began sea trials in May. The government says these are completely different to the Indian submarines. “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 is quoted as saying.
Thales, which owns 35 per cent of the shipbuilder, could not immediately be reached for comment outside normal European business hours.
The breadth of detail creates a major strategic problem for the countries, said an Australian political source with decades of experience in the global arms industry.
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Among the top secret details revealed by the leaked documents are stealth capabilities of the Indian Navy’s new submarines, their diving depths, range and endurance, frequencies at which the submarines gather intelligence, propeller’s noise specifications and specifications of their torpedo launch system and combat system.
