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File photo of an employee looking at the propeller of a Scorpene submarine at the industrial site of the naval defence company and shipbuilder DCNS in La Montagne near Nantes, France, April 26, 2016. Reuters/Stephane Mahe/Files

The French defence contractor DCNS has been notified that the attack capabilities of its Scorpene-class submarine designed for the Indian Navy back in 2011 was leaked by Australian publications. The leak is believed to have compromised the lives of Indian, Malaysian and Chilean navies as the two latter countries also use the same platform for their fleet submarines, manufactured by the French defence contractor.

Some 22,400 pages of classified submarine information were published in The Australian earlier this week. Canberra awarded a $50 billion contract to the French defence contractor in April to design and build 12 Shortfin Barracuda A1 diesel-and-electric-powered submarines to serve Australia.

Read: French group DCNS wins Australia’s $50b submarines deal

The timing of this incident is crucial as it may expose a number of the Indian-specification of the Scorpene-class’ navigation and communication systems to its current strategic opponents: China and Pakistan.

According to reports, the leak is believed to have originated from a certain former French Navy official connected with DCNS as a subcontractor in India back in 2011. From India, it is believed that the data containing the classified information was mailed to a few Southeast Asian firms before reaching Australia.

Meanwhile, in an interview with David Koch on Wednesday, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull downplayed the leakage of classified information. He has explained why the incident would have little impact on Australia's contract with DCNS.

"The submarine that they are building for India is not the submarine we will be building for Australia. It is a completely different model. It is a different submarine. The information is some years old now. So, the submarine that we will be building with the French is called the ‘barracuda.’ It is a completely different submarine to the ‘scorpion’ they are building for India," Turnbull said.