DCNS, whose two-third is owned by the French government, will be designing 12 new submarines for Australia; deal is worth 50 bn United States dollars, and the leak might compromise the security of classified data on the submarines, as per the report.
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The navy also made it clear that the leak did not take place in India. “It appears that the source of leak is from overseas and not in India”, Parrikar said, vowing to investigate further.
Additionally, the Indian Navy has also issued a fresh statement saying, “Government is seized of the reported leak of documents related to the ongoing Indian Scorpene submarine programme as reported in sections of the media”.
“What I understand is there is a hacking”, he said without giving details.
The incident emerged in a news report on Tuesday in The Australian, which also released a few sample documents.
The combat capability of the scorpene submarines being built at Mazagon dock at a cost of Dollars 3.5 billion by French shipbuilder DCNS, went public when an Australian newspaper, “The Australian”, put the details on the website. The data leak has prompted India to order probe into the matter.
Sources in the ministry of defence said that the Indian Navy has already been told to ask French defence contractor DCNS to find out about the leak.
Although the 22,000-page cache of documents date from 2011, they give very detailed technical information about the combat capability of the Scorpene vessels, which are now in use in Malaysia and Chile.
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.
Navy sources, meanwhile, maintained there is nothing to be alarmed about as the data does not pertain to any of the Scorpene submarines now being built in Mazgaon Docks, Mumbai.
“How can we know the signature of the boat which is still not done with the trials”.
“If it’s 22,400 pages, it’s a major stuff-up”, the source said.
People familiar with the matter said the documents looked to have been stolen in 2011 by a former French employee that had been fired while providing training in India on the use of the submarines.
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 on a contract to build the Barracuda next generation of submarines.
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The Indian government signed a $3.5 bn deal with French manufacturer DCNS to build six Scorpene submarines.
