It is still not clear whether the publication of the mass of data about the six Scorpene submarines being built for the Indian Navy will compromise their security, or who leaked it, how it was done and what the motive was. An Australian newspaper claims to have in its possession over 22,000 pages of documents on several key parameters of these submarines, like information about sonars, sensors, navigation systems, intelligence methods, frequencies and noise levels. Six Scorpene submarines are being built at Mumbai’s Mazagon Dock by a French company DCNS as part of India’s ‘Project 75’ programme. One of them is almost ready and others are at advanced stages of construction. An investigation has been ordered, involving the French company also, into various aspects of the leakage and its impact on the submarines which are going to be the mainstay of India’s underwater defence capabilities in the coming decades.
There is a view that the details are of a commercial nature and their disclosure will not seriously affect the operational capabilities of the submarines. This appears to be an early damage control exercise and it would be premature to jump any conclusion. It would be more prudent to wait for the complete audit to be over and getting a report from the French vendor. While some of the information leaked may be available to other navies, it no doubt is a serious security lapse as they were leaked or stolen from a high security project. Motives and methods of the leakage are no comfort for India. If the disclosures about the design have compromised security, India should insist on re-engineering the submarines or at least to mitigate the damage in the worst case scenario. The company must be held accountable for the damage in financial and other terms. DCNS is partially owned by the French government. India has enough leverage with the French government, which is a major partner in other defence and strategic programmes, to ensure that its interests are well protected.
Whatever the outcome of the investigations, it is a major embarrassment that extensive details about a strategic programme are published in a newspaper. That should serve as a warning to the defence ministry to insist on the foreign companies to ensure a higher level of data protection. The Scorpene project was India’s biggest defence procurement programme at the time of the signing of the agreement in 2005. A modern submarine fleet is crucial for national security. As the existing fleet is already old, we need the new boats but we must have to ensure that the data leak would neither jeopardise India’s strategic interest nor put the lives of the crew at risk.