Indian Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba said on Saturday that primary investigations suggest the Scopene data leak took place at the Direction des Constructions Navales Services (DCNS) office in France and not from India’s side.
Speaking at the launch of the Mormugao destroyers in Mumbai, Lanba said that a high-level committee was probing the leak and based on their report a mitigation check would be initiated.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had earlier played down the Scorpene leak, saying it’s ‘not a big worry’.
However, Admiral Lanba termed the Scorpene data leak ‘a matter of serious concern’.
Details of the Scorpene submarine were published in the Australian newspaper last month. Concerns were raised that it had become vulnerable even before it was ready to enter service.
Indian submarine experts say that, while the breach in information security was serious, it does not make the Scorpene immediately vulnerable to detection. The most vital data about a submarine is its unique ‘signature’ of noise, heat and electro-magnetic emissions and it’s the combination of such signatures that determines the ability to detect them.
