The French company also alluded that the leak may have occurred at India’s end, rather than from France.
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While the paper reported that the data was leaked in 2011, some documents shared reveal a date stamp as late as May 2013.
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.
India has chose to seek report from French shipbuilder DCNS on the leak of documents of Indian Navy’s Scorpene submarine project.
The data include 4,457 pages on underwater sensors, 4,209 pages on above-water sensors, 4,301 pages on combat management system, 493 pages on torpedo launch system, 6,841 pages on communications system and 2,138 on navigation systems. “In the case of India, DCNS is the provider not controller of data – clearly hinting that the leak happened in India”, Surjewala said.
The “stunning leak” was reported by the Australian, a Sydney based newspaper, which “detailed the entire secret combat capability of the six Scorpene-class submarines” being built in collaboration with the French company at the Mazgaon Dockyard – a USA $3.46 billion (Rs 23,562 crore) project.
“The government must immediately order a high-level enquiry, find out the truth after that we can consider the future course of action”. Remaining hidden, or stealth, is considered the most important attribute of a submarine. The navy also made clear that the source of the leak was not in India. Reacting to the leak, DCNS said: “This serious matter is thoroughly investigated by the proper French national authorities for defence security”.
Defence minister Manohar Parrikar described the leak as a case of “hacking” and has asked the Navy to prepare a detailed report on the leak as well as an assessment of how it would impact ongoing project for induction of six Scorpene submarines. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull admitted that “any leak of classified information was a concern”.
Sources in the Navy also sought to downplay the impact of the leak on the capabilities of the submarine.
“We (French authorities) are trying to asses the extent; the nature; the sensitivity of information that may have been leaked, and we will do work in this.in very very close cooperation (and) with full transparency with Indian authorities”, Ziegler said.
Independent defence analyst Commodore Uday Bhaskar (Retd), director of the Society of Policy Studies, said if the veracity of the documents was proved, it definitely compromises the Indian platform.
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The Scorpene data leak has given ammunition to the opposition to attack the BJP-led government with Congress accusing the Centre of launching an “operation cover-up”. Former defence minister A.K. Antony demanded that a high-level inquiry be ordered quickly into the entire episode.
