India and France to launch probe over Scorpene submarine data leak

Parrikar further said that they would come out with more information in the next couple of days.

“For now we don’t know if the information is correct”, a DCNS spokeswoman said.

The leak was first reported in The Australian newspaper.

The Australian posted redacted excerpts from the leaked documents on its site, and reported it had seen thousands of pages offering details of the Scorpene’s underwater sensors, above-water sensors, its combat management system, its torpedo launch system and specifications, and its communications and navigation systems. Apart from sending shockwaves in the Indian defence establishment, it has also alarmed countries such as Malaysia, Chile and Brazil, which are either operating or have ordered a variant of the Scorpene, reports said.

He said naval headquarters has said the leaked document is of 2001, and if that is true the information may well be old.

The leaked documents list out the frequencies at which the submarines gather intelligence and the levels of noise the subs make at various speeds, the news report said.

The documents include 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.

Submarine Institute of Australia executive director David Nicholls said Australian submarine programs have always been managed under stringent security requirements which protected all information and technical data.

The six submarines are reportedly being produced at a state-run shipyard in Mumbai while the first one was expected to go into service by the end of this year.

India “has requested the French government to investigate this incident with urgency and share their findings”, the defense ministry also said, adding it was conducting an internal audit and taking up the matter with foreign governments to find out more about the leak.

“It appears that the source of leak is from overseas and not in India”.

“What I understand is that there is hacking”, Mr. Parrikar said, adding that the data can not be complete as the final assembly is done by India.

It recently beat Germany’s ThyssenKrupp and a Japanese-government backed bid by Mitsubishi and Kawasaki in Australia for a 34 billion euro contract to supply the Barracuda next generation of submarines to the Australia navy.

Australia’s government, which signed a big-budget deal in April with DCNS for 12 submarines of a different class, said the leak shouldn’t affect the Australian ships.