India’s Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said he has told the Chief of the Navy to analyse what has been leaked, to find out what the leaked documents say about the submarines they are buying and what impact that will have on India. The Indian Navy has, however, said there is “nothing to get alarmed” about, as the specifications in the documents will not be same as in the submarine to be finally manufactured.
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“A variant of the same French-designed Scorpene is also used by the navies of Malaysia, Chile and, from 2018, Brazil, so news of the Edward Snowden-sized leak – revealed today – will trigger alarm at the highest level in these countries”, said the report.
According to media reports, the documents running into 22,400 pages detail the combat capabilities of French-designed Scorpene-class submarines.
‘It appears that the source of leak is from overseas and not in India’.
It though that data has been passed through firms in Southeast Asia before finally being mailed to a company in Australia, the newspaper said.
Kalvari – the first of the Scorpene class submarines, went for trial in May 2016 and It is expected to be inducted into the Indian Navy soon.
“It is a completely different submarine to the one they are building for India”. Australian defence industry minister Christpher Ptne said in a statement that the leak will have “no bearing on the Australian government’s future submarine programme”.
A day after data on the Scorpene-class submarines surfaced on the website of an Australian media outlet, the Indian government has clarified that the data in the documents “do not pose any security compromise as the vital parameters have been blacked out”. “The first step is to identify if it’s related to us, and anyway it’s not (at) all a 100% leak”, he added. “Mayby, in a couple of days I’ll be able share with you”.
India’s defence ministry said on Thursday it saw no immediate security risk and the French government said the information in the documments only showed how the submarines operate and did not compromise their security.
The Indian Navy said in a statement, “The available information is being examined at Integrated Headquarters, Ministry of Defence (Navy) and an analysis is being carried out by the concerned specialists”.
A DCNS spokesperson told Ars: “DCNS has been made aware of articles published in the Australian press related to the leakage of sensitive data about Indian Scorpene”.
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However, the defense contractor didn’t rule out the possibility that the leak was part of an “economic war” waged against it by its competitors after Australia in April awarded DCNS a $38 billion contract to design and build the country’s next generation of submarines.
