On Tuesday, a report in Australian media revealed that sensitive information related to India’s Scorpene submarines had been leaked, with French shipbuilder DCNS, which designed the submarine, facing a leak of documents spreading over 22,000 pages.
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India “has requested the French government to investigate this incident with urgency and share their findings”, the defense ministry also said, adding it was conducting an internal audit and taking up the matter with foreign governments to find out more about the leak.
The DCNS said it has launched an inquiry “which will determine the precise nature of the documents which have been leaked, the potential damage to our customers as well as those responsible”.
It has been reported that the leaked data give details on the combat capability of these Scorpene-class submarines, designed by French ship maker DCNS for the Indian Navy.
Defence analyst Commodore Uday Bhaskar (Retd), Director of Society of Policy Studies, said if the veracity of the documents is proved then it definitely compromises the Indian platform.
Meanwhile, the Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL), where the Scorpene submarines are being built, today said the data leak did not take place from its end and that it was assisting the Navy in the probe.
A company spokeswoman said: “Competition is getting tougher and tougher, and all means can be used in this context”.
Australia in April awarded DCNS an A$50 billion (S$51.6 billion) contract to design and build its next generation of submarines.
The details leaked included what frequencies the submarines gather intelligence at, what levels of noise they make at various speeds and their diving depths, range and endurance – all sensitive information that is highly classified, the Australian report said. “It’s part of the tools in economic war”, she said.
Similar submarines are now in service in Malaysia and Chile.
The Australian Newspaper reported that 22,400 pages of leaked documents could prove t be a blessing for India’s rivals. Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, he said the leak did not appear to have come from India.
The first of the Scorpene class submarines – INS Kalvari – is undergoing sea trials. It is a completely different submarine to the Scorpion they are building for India.
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French Scorpene submarines that are being built in India have been compromised due to data leaks by an overseas source. “However, in the case of Australia, DCNS is both the provider and in-country controller of technical data for the full chain of transmission and usage over the life of the submarines”, DCNS was quoted as saying by The Daily.
