JOIN US French defence contractor DCNS has been hit by the leak on its submarines and is likely to alarm India, Malaysia and Chile, which use the boats, The Australian reported on Wednesday.
The 22,400 leaked pages, which the daily said it had seen, detail the combat capability of the Scorpene-class DCNS submarine designed for the Indian navy, variants of which are used by Malaysia and Chile. Brazil is also due to deploy the vessels from 2018.
Australia in April awarded DCNS an AusUSD 50 billion ($ 38 billion) contract to design and build its next generation of submarines.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull sought to play down the impact of the leak, saying in Canberra that while it was “of concern”, the Scorpene was a different model to the subs Australia is buying.
“The submarine we are building or will be building with the French is called the Barracuda, quite a completely different submarine to the Scorpene they are building for India,” he said.
“We have the highest security protections on all of our defence information, whether it is in partnership with other countries or entirely within Australia.”
The leaked documents were marked ‘Restricted Scorpene India’ and gave the combat capabilities of India’s new submarine fleet, The Australian said.
They also included thousands of pages on the submarine sensors and thousands more on its communication and navigation systems, as well as nearly 500 pages on the torpedo launch system alone.
DCNS told AFP it was aware of the articles published in the Australian press and “national security authorities” had launched an enquiry into the matter, without giving details.
The Australian said DCNS implied that the leak may have come from India rather than France.
Australian Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne said in a statement the leak “has no bearing on the Australian government’s future submarine programme”.