Indian Defense Minister Tries to Allay Concerns Over Scorpene Sub Data Leak

The information leak involving documents about the construction of Scorpene-class submarines is unlikely to have grave consequences, Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Friday.

NEW DELHI (Sputnik) — On Wednesday, The Australian newspaper reported that over 22,000 pages outlining detail informations about India's Scorpene submarines had been leaked following a security breach at the French manufacturing company DCNS, which is tasked with building the warships for New Delhi. DCNS dismissed speculation that the leaked files contained classified data.

"We are going by assumption of the worst case scenario. Don’t think its big worry, will be able to put things in right directions. Have told them (Indian Navy) based on inputs to find out area of concerns & take appropriate steps to address it," Parrikar was quoted as saying by The Indian Express newspaper.

Parrikar added that the submarines have not been tested in sea trials so far and that the specifications did not contain information about their combat qualities.

The Indian government and DCNS made a deal worth $3.5 billion in 2005 to build six Scorpene submarines.