NEW DELHI: More than 22,000 pages of top secret data on the capabilities of six highly advanced submarines being built for the Indian Navy in Mumbai in collaboration with a French company have been leaked, raising alarm bells in the security establishment.

The combat capability of the scorpene submarines being built at Mazagon dock at a cost of $3.5 billion by French shipbuilder DCNS, went public when an Australian newspaper, “The Australian”, put the details on the website.

Reacting with alacrity to the development, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, who learnt about the leak at midnight, ordered Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lamba to go into the ‘entire issue”. A report is also being sought from DCNS. “What I understand is there is a hacking. So we will find out all this,” Parrikar told reporters in Delhi. Australia in April awarded DCNS an Austarlian dollar 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, completely different submarine to the Scorpene they are building for India,” he told Channel Seven. “We have the highest security protections on all of our defence information, whether it is in partnership with other countries or entirely within Australia.”—PTI