Malaysia’s Scorpene submarines have different specifications from those used by India, said Putrajaya, in allaying concerns over a secret data leak reportedly hitting French submarine supplier DCNS that has compromised Indian military submarines.

Malaysian Deputy Defence Minister Mohd Johari Baharum said the report by The Australian newspaper — which claimed that the leaked documents detailed the “entire” combat capability of six Scorpene-class submarines DCNS had designed for India, variants of which are used by Malaysia and Chile — should be investigated and verified first.

“Whatever the result may be, the specifications, characteristics and the abilities of our submarines are unique and different from that owned by Chile or India. Therefore, I don’t see any reason to worry because of the allegation of a data leak that was reported, because it does not affect our operations or the security of TLDM’s (Royal Malaysian Navy) submarines,” Mr Mohd Johari told Malay Mail Online.

… Mr David Han, a research analyst with the Malaysia Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), told TODAY that Malaysia does not face the same maritime security issues as India, so the operational requirements of the Malaysian Navy would be different.

… Dr Bernard Loo, an associate professor at the RSIS’ Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS) said that “it makes sense that the Malaysian Scorpenes are modified, since the Scorpene to begin with was designed to operate in cold waters, and Malaysia’s Scorpenes operate in warm tropical waters with higher salinity and therefore experience greater corrosion than the French boats”.