Bilkulonline.com, New Delhi, Aug 25: A day after reports emerged that documents related to India’s Scorpene submarine have been leaked, the Indian Navy on Thursday said the issue has been taken up with the French government.
Advertisement
The Navy said that the matter has been taken up with DG of Armament of French Government and it has requested the French authorities to “investigate with urgency & share findings with India”.
First revealed by The Australian, the leak exposed 22,000 pages detailing the secret capabilities of six Scorpene-class vessels now in production. DCNS in collaboration with Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL) is making six Scorpene submarines for the Indian Navy.
Earlier, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has said the leak of documents detailing the secret combat capabilities of Scorpene-class submarines was a case of hacking. This news story is related to Latest/145201-India-leak-submarine-papers-doesnt-compromise-security/ – breaking news, latest news, pakistan ne.
They had argued that the leaked documents are outdated technical manuals and don’t constitute sensitive information and is very different from specifications of the Scorpene subs being built for India.
While “The Australian” newspaper reported that DCNS implied that the leak may have come from India rather than France, India’s defence ministry countered this and said, “It appears that the source of leak is from overseas and not in India”. The minister said he understands that there has been a hacking.
Scorpene class submarines has been build in India Kalvari first time and went for trial in May 2016, it is expected to be soon inducted in Indian Navy.
The first of the India’s Scorpenes, Kalvari, is now undergoing sea trials and is scheduled to be commissioned in October this year.
The leak has raised doubts about the security of a separate DCNS submarine project in Australia where it is locked in exclusive negotiations after seeing off rivals for a A$50 billion ($38 billion) contract to build the Barracuda next generation of submarines.
Advertisement
The leaked documents cover the Scorpene-class model and do not contain any details of the vessel now being designed for the Australian fleet. Brazil is also due to deploy the vessels from 2018. What I can tell you is that the French Authorities are taking the matter very seriously and working very seriously with DCNS and we are trying to assess the extent, the nature and the sensitivity of information that may have been leaked.
