Australia’s peak body for submarines says it’s confident Defence can properly protect highly sensitive submarine information.
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Acknowledging that the leak would help the enemy or any other country to protect itself whenever it goes to sea, he, however, said that the Indian Navy is capable of changing the submarine’s parameters.
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.
The Australian government, which signed a big budget deal in April with DCNS for 12 submarines of a different class, said that the leak shouldn’t affect the Australian ships.
The Indian Navy on Thursday said the documents that reportedly revealed classified information on the combat capabilities of India’s Scorpene submarines did not compromise security because all crucial parameters regarding the vessels had been censored.
In a statement, the defence ministry said the available information is being examined at naval headquarters and an analysis is being carried out by specialists.
The Navy, however, stressed that the leak did not happen in India.
According to The Australian, the leaked documents marked “Restricted Scorpene India” include 4,457 pages on the submarine’s underwater sensors, 4,209 pages on its above-water sensors, 4,301 pages on its combat management system, 493 pages on its torpedo launch system and specifications, 6,841 pages on the submarine’s communications system and 2,138 pages on its navigation systems.
In the wake of the discovery that a 22,400-page document about the Scorpène-class submarine (for which India has already paid French shipbuilder DCSN around $3.45 billion) was leaked, the Indian military establishment responded calmly. So it is likely that they were taken from DCNS in France.
“The Navy will go through it, an enquiry has been ordered by the defence minister and may be at some cost, we may have to change those parameters which I think the Indian Navy is quite capable of doing”, he added.
However the daily said the data was thought to have been removed from France in 2011 by a former French navy officer who at the time was a subcontractor for DCNS. This serious matter is thoroughly investigated by the proper French national authorities for Defense Security.
It could not immediately authenticate the documents, but would not rule out that the leak was part of an “economic war” waged by the competitors it beat in the contest for the Australian contract, DCNS said.
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Parrikar further said that they would come out with more information in the next couple of days.
