KUALA LUMPUR: The French-shipbuilding company that designed Scorpene submarines for the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) was reported to have suffered a massive leak of secret documents.
The Australian, in its news report, said DCNS, the company that had also won the bid to design Australia's new submarine fleet, has suffered a leak that runs up to some 22,400 document pages that detailed the capability of six Scorpene class submarines it had designed for the Indian Navy.
"The French company that won the bid to design Australia’s new $50 billion submarine fleet has suffered a massive leak of secret documents, raising fears about the future security of top-secret data on the navy’s future fleet.
"The stunning leak, which runs to 22,400 pages and has been seen by The Australian, details the entire secret combat capability of the six Scorpene-class submarines that French shipbuilder DCNS has designed for the Indian Navy.
"A variant of the same French-designed Scorpene is also used by the navies of Malaysia, Chile and, from 2018, Brazil, so news of the Edward Snowden-sized leak — revealed today — will trigger alarm at the highest level in these countries," said the report.
Among the top secret details revealed by the leaked documents are stealth capabilities of the Indian Navy's new submarines, their diving depths, range and endurance, frequencies at which the submarines gather intelligence, propeller's noise specifications and specifications of their torpedo launch system and combat system.
The leak might spark concern on the future security of classified data on RMN's two Scorpene-class submarines - KD Tunku Abdul Rahman and KD Tun Razak.
In an immediate response today, the RMN said although KD Tunku Abdul Rahman and KD Tun Razak are from the same class, their operational and capability secrets are not compromised by the leak.
RMN chief Admiral Tan Sri Ahmad Kamarulzaman Ahmad Badaruddin said the Malaysian subs were built with their own specifications.
"Although RMN's KD Tunku Abdul Rahman and KD Tun Razak are from the 'same' class (with the Indian Navy new submarines), our subs have their own specification details and capabilities.
"Thus, the leak would not compromise the operations and capabilities of both our submarines," he told the NST today.
Kamarulzaman said RMN is also very serious in ensuring the security of information, and all necessary measures to prevent leaks especially on sensitive data are already in place.
He said the Navy as one of the nation's security agencies would never compromise with anyone who are involved in leaking government secrets and put the country's security at risk.