Scorpene submarine data leak jolts Delhi

22,000 pages expose sub’s strengths, flaws.

Faced with depleting underwater fighting capabilities, this was something that the Indian Navy was waiting for with bated breath. Labelled as a cutting-edge defence technology product with a deadly arsenal of Exocet missiles and Black Shark torpedoes, the stealth capability of the diesel-electrical submarine Scorpene-class submarine was a much-touted feature.

All that came crashing down on Wednesday, setting the corridors of South Block abuzz when the submarine’s capabilities, strengths and weaknesses stood exposed as 22,484 pages of top-secret and sensitive data of India’s Scorpene submarines project — built at a massive cost of Rs 23,500 crores ($3.5 billion) — hit the public domain, setting off alarm bells in India’s defence and security establishment.

First reported on Tuesday in The Australian newspaper, the information revealed includes 6,841 pages on the submarines’ communications system, 4,457 pages on underwater sensors, 4,301 pages on its combat management system, 4,209 pages on above-water sensors, 2,138 on navigation systems and 493 pages on its torpedo launch system and specifications.

The information fleshes out details of the speed and conditions needed to use the periscope, the propeller’s noise specifications and the radiated noise levels that occur when the submarine surfaces, the levels of noise they make at various speeds and their diving depths, range and endurance.

The six-submarine project is a joint collaboration between state-owned Mazagaon Dock Ship Builders and French shipbuilder DCNS. A French company dealing with naval defence products and energy, DCNS is 64 per cent state-owned while Thales owns 35 per cent and one per cent is employee-owned. Reacting to the leak, DCNS said: “This serious matter is thoroughly investigated by the proper French national authorities for defence security.”

Defence minister Manohar Parrikar has sought a report from Navy chief Adm. Sunil Lanba on the issue. Saying that a final picture will emerge only in a couple of days, the minister said: “I have asked the Navy chief to study the entire issue about what has been leaked, what is there about us and to what extent. It came to my knowledge at about 12 am. What I understand is there is a hacking. So we will find out all this.” Mr Parrikar added that he did not suspect the leak to be 100 per cent since a lot of final integration lies with India.

While defence ministry sources said the Navy has been told to ask DCNS to probe the leak, the Indian Navy said in a release: “The available information is being examined at Integrated Headquarters, Ministry of Defence (Navy), and an analysis is being carried out by specialists. It appears the source of leak is from overseas and not in India.” The Navy sources also claimed that the document was dated and the Indian submarine had undergone “many changes” from the initial design, the details of which have been leaked.

The leak has also cast a shadow over DCNS’ contract to design Australia’s new submarine fleet. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull admitted that “any leak of classified information was a concern”.

The Australian daily’s report said that the data on the Scorpene was written in France for India in 2011 and is suspected of being removed from France in that same year by a former French Navy officer who was at that time a DCNS subcontractor. However, some of the documents also date to 2013.

MoD sources also told this newspaper: “It appears that our papers are different from the leaked ones. The papers we have mentions the company’s name as DCNS while the leaked papers have the name ‘Armaris’. Armaris is what DCNS was known as till 2005.”

In Bengaluru, French ambassador to India Alexandre Ziegler told reporters: “The French authorities are taking the matter very, very seriously and are working very seriously with DCNS... We are trying to asses the extent; the nature; the sensitivity of information that may have been leaked, and we will do work in this... in very, very close cooperation (and) with full transparency with the Indian authorities.”

Independent defence analyst Commodore Uday Bhaskar (Retd), director of the Society of Policy Studies, said if the veracity of the documents was proved, it definitely compromises the Indian platform. “This is because the leakage of so m5 uch technical details compromises the submarines’ capability to stay undetected.”

The Congress Party termed the leak as “scandalous”, and demanded a complete security audit of the defence ministry by a sitting Supreme Court judge, and accused Mr Parrikar of launching an “operation coverup”. Former defence minister A.K. Antony demanded that a high-level inquiry be ordered quickly into the entire episode.