After the news of Indian Scorpene submarine data leaked which could be a matter of threat for Indian Navy, on Thursday India’s defence ministry claimed that there was no immediate security risk. Also the French government said that the information which were leaked only showed the operate function of the submarine and it did not affect the security.
‘The Australian’ published this week that more than 22,000 pages of documents relating to the submarine have been leaked. The paper raised concern about the ability of the company to protect sensitive data.
A source told Reuters that the data was stolen by a former French employee and it has raised concern of $38 billion contract with Australia.
The two countries are investigating on the matter after ‘The Australian’ published the news on Wednesday. The Scorpene submarine has built in India by DCNS, owned by 65% by the French state and 35% by Thales.
The French government source added that the data was not leaked but theft. “We have not found any DCNS negligence, but we have identified some dishonesty by an individual.” The source added the documents have been stolen in 2011 and the former employee has been fired while providing training in India on the use of submarines.
According to the source, the leaked documents were not classified and these documents only focused on how the submarines are built. “The Indians can object to the fact that these documents show the Pakistanis how to maintain their submarines and that’s annoying, but it doesn’t tell the Pakistanis how to detect an Indian ship, or how we build a submarine in France. Not at all.”
‘The Australian’ published only a portion of the documents; the sensitive details of the submarine’s design and stealth potential did not enter the public domain.
An Indian Defence Ministry statement stated that the government seized the leaked data related to the submarine. And the posted documents have been thoroughly examined and the vital parameters of the documents have been blacked out so there is no threat of security compromise.
The leak has raised concern about an another DCNS submarine project in Australia for 50 billion Australian dollars ($38 billion) where the company is locked in exclusive negotiations to build the Barracuda, a new fleet of submarines.
The head of France’s parliamentary defense committee, Patricia Adam said that there was a mutual confidence and that contract will not put into question.
DCNS said that it was looking into the matter that if any harm had been caused to the clients and whether commercial spying was to blame.
