 "Workers and engineers from Mazagon Dock cheer during the floating of the first Project 75 (Scorpene) submarine on pontoon, in Mumbai, on Monday")
Expressing concern over reports of Scorpene submarine leak, Rear Admiral (Retd.) Raja Menon on Wednesday said that the Centre should initiate steps to minimise the effects of information loss.
Demanding a thorough probe into the matter, Rear Admiral (Retd.) Menon told ANI that the Centre must find out as to how the information has been leaked.
"But now we have to try and cope with and see what can be done to minimise the effects of the loss of information. There are many details of the submarine that will come out only after the trials. I don't think that information has been leaked yet. So, one can hope that as you say 100 percent information has not been leaked out so far," he added.
Asserting that nowadays there is very little information that is actually classified, he said the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre must find out whether that information has been leaked or general information has been leaked.
"It has to be seen what damage limitation can be done now. Mostly the information about the submarine warfare is tactical that is where exactly is the submarine. Now that information you cannot leak out. So, while I heavily criticise the fact that leak has taken place at the same time one should not go overboard as to how much information has gone," he added.
Rear Admiral (Retd.) Menon said there are some information, which should not go like the frequency on which the submarine is transmitting and the frequency of which is being used by the submarine as those are all normally kept classified.
"It's very difficult to leak that information because they can be changed at the last minute. The security of data is a well-known subject in the Navy. There are enough rules and if those rules are observed, then leak should not occur. One really needs to observe the rules of classification of data. I don't think there requires any change in the system," he added.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar earlier today said that he has asked Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sunil Lanba to analyse the extent of the leak and find out whether it is related to India or not.
Parrikar further asserted that the leak is not 100 percent.
"I have asked the Naval Chief to conduct full analysis of the incident as to what is the leak and what has been leaked about us. The first step is to identify, the second step is to identify the extent of unwarranted, but it is not all 100 percent, because we do have our final integration," Parrikar said.
"It came to my knowledge at around 12 last night, and what I understand is that there is a hacking. So, we will find out all these aspects," he added.
Parrikar further said that in the next couple of days they will come out with more information.
On Tuesday, a report in Australian media revealed that sensitive information related to India's Scorpene submarines has been leaked, with French shipbuilder DCNS, which designed the submarine, facing a leak of documents spreading over 22,000 pages.
According to The Australian, the leak details the entire secret combat capability of the six Scorpene-class submarines that French shipbuilder DCNS has designed for the Indian Navy.
As per reports, the leak includes details of the submarine's underwater sensors, above-water sensors, combat management system, torpedo launch system and specifications, communications system and navigation systems.
Meanwhile, the Indian Navy has said the source of the leak appears to be from overseas and not in India.
"The available information is being examined at Integrated Headquarters, Ministry of Defence (Navy) and an analysis is being carried out by the concerned specialists," the Indian Navy said in a statement.
"It appears that the source of leak is from overseas and not in India," the statement added.
