A fresh set of leaked documents containing information about the operating instructions of underwater warfare system of the six Scorpene submarines were uploaded on Thursday by The Australian, an Australian newspaper.
The submarines are being built in India by French shipbuilder Direction des Constructions et Armes Navales (DCNS).
A top defence analyst, however, allayed fears that it could compromise the security of the strategically important combat vessels.
The newly revealed documents, marked “Restricted Scorpene India” with Indian Navy insignia on it, give details about the sonar system of the submarines which is used to gather intelligence underwater. While the vital parameters and exact details have been redacted or blacked out, the original documents contain all data.
The documents talk about a wide range of technical specifications of the sonars and at what degree and frequency it will function. The documents detail the “Operating Instruction Manual”, which talks about how to select a target for weapon firing, weapon configuration selection, among others.
While a French government source revealed that the documents relating to Indian submarines were stolen from French naval contractor, DCNS, and not leaked, at this stage the real source of the documents is not clear.
‘National Security Not Compromised’
Indian Navy has not yet officially reacted to the release of new documents, however sources maintained that it does not compromise national security. They said the same information about a submarine was on “many naval defence websites”.
If the question is if Thursdays revelation has made our submarines vulnerable, “then the answer is no”, said defence analyst Commodore (Retd.) Uday Bhaskar.
On the face of it, these documents are basic operating manual. You buy any goods from the market, it will come with an operating manual.Commodore Uday Bhaskar (Retd.), Defence Analyst
The paper said it has been told that the secret data was removed from DCNS by a former sub-contractor in 2011 and taken to a private company in Southeast Asia before being passed on to a branch of that company in a second Southeast Asian nation.
A disk containing the data filed was then posted in regular mail to a company in Australia. DCNS is focusing its investigation on former employees and sub-contractors involved in the project.
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