Once we inducted six submarines at a time will form a core of the Indian Navy’s submarine arm for the next two decades, Indian Navy officials have said.
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Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had yesterday ordered the Navy Chief to go into the “entire issue”.
Parrikar has sought a report on the extent of damage following the leak, which, he said, appeared to be an incident of “hacking”.
This would also have to be reviewed and re-wired such that the dissemination of information in a complex lattice – say from the technical team in France to the Indian Navy’s design bureau to the shop floor in Mazagon Docks is relatively user-friendly and not choked by heavy-handed security concerns.
Contacted by IANS on Thursday, the DCNS, which had on Wednesday issued a statement, said the “serious matter” is being thoroughly investigated by the “proper French national authorities”.
India will ask DCNS for a report on the leak; sources in the Navy said, adding that the information was disclosed outside India.
The paper said it has been told that the secret data was removed from DCNS by a former sub-contractor in 2011 and taken to a private company in Southeast Asia before being passed to a branch of that company in a second Southeast Asian nation.
A high level committee constituted by the India’s Ministry of Defense is undertaking a detailed assessment of the potential impact over ongoing United States dollars 3.5 billion Scorpene submarine projects.
“Any stealth advantage for the navy’s new submarines would be gravely compromised if data on its planned combat and performance capabilities was leaked in the same manner as the data from the Scorpene”. The first is expected to enter service by the end of the year as India seeks to rebuild its dwindling fleet and assert its dominance in the strategic waters of the Indian Ocean.
The daily said, about 22,400 pages have leaked, it includes details of combat capability of the Scorpene-class submarine DCNS.
French naval contractor DCNS said it may have been the victim of “economic warfare” after secrets of Scorpene submarines were leaked.
DCNS, which is 35-per cent owned by Thales, said it was working to determine if any harm had been caused to clients with a view to drawing up an action plan.
Asked if the leak could affect other contracts, a company spokeswoman said it had come against a hard commercial backdrop and that corporate espionage could be to blame. DCNS redesigned its nuclear-powered Shortfin Barracuda to meet Australian specifications for a stealthy, diesel-electric-powered vessel capable of matching the long range of Australia’s current Collins-class submarines.
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DCNS, which is also vying for submarine contracts in Norway and Poland, beat Germany’s ThyssenKrupp AG and a Japanese-government backed bid by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kawasaki Heavy Industries in Australia.
