The DCNS website says the new ship would be “the recipient of France’s most sensitive and protected submarine technology and will be the most lethal conventional submarine ever contemplated”.
Advertisement
As the Scorpene data leak report broke out shaking the Indian defence establishment, French Ambassador Alexandre Ziegler said in Bengaluru that French authorities were trying to assess the extent, nature and sensitivity of information that may have been leaked.
The leak was first reported in The Australian newspaper.
India said on Thursday that it sees no immediate security risk from the leak to an Australian newspaper of secret documents detailing the capability of a French-designed submarine being built for its navy.
Earlier this morning, the Australian reported of a possible leak of the documents relating to Indian Navy’s $3 billion submarine project. Brazil also owing to arrange the watercraft from 2018.
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”.
Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar ordered a probe, saying the documents could have been obtained through hacking.
The first French Scorpene submarine built by state-owned Mazagon Docks Ltd. (MDL), based in Mumbai, under technology transfer from French naval contractor DCNS was launched in April 2015.
But that’s what happened to the Indian Navy, which is investigating the leak of 22,000-plus pages of documents revealing data about its Scorpene subs.
At a daily e-press briefing, foreign ministry spokesman said Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault did not talk with his Australian counterpart about the issue.
They also included thousands of pages on the submarine sensors and thousands more on its communication and navigation systems, as well as almost 500 pages on the torpedo launch system alone.
“I have asked the Navy Chief to investigate the matter and find what has been leaked and how much of it is about us”, Parrikar said. So crucial for India’s security, the Scorpene-class submarines that French shipbuilder DCNS designed, has triggered an investigation on the Indian Navy. Sources have told FE Online, that the data that has been leaked, is dated.
Advertisement
The leak might spark concern on the future security of classified data on RMN’s two Scorpene-class submarines – KD Tunku Abdul Rahman and KD Tun Razak.
