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| A DCNS Scorpene class submarine |
French defence contractor DCNS has been hit by a massive leak of secret data on its submarines likely to alarm India, Malaysia and Chile which use the boats, The Australian newspaper reported Wednesday.
The 22,400 leaked pages, which the daily said it had seen, detail the combat capability of the Scorpene-class DCNS submarine designed for the Indian navy, variants of which are used by Malaysia and Chile.
Brazil is also due to deploy the vessels from 2018.
Australia in April awarded DCNS an Aus$50 billion (US$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."
The leaked documents were marked "Restricted Scorpene India" and gave the combat capabilities of India's new submarine fleet, The Australian said.
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