Monthly Archives: August 2018

NEW DELHI: Secret data on India’s Scorpene submarines was accessed by an unknown number of people working for a private company in a Southeast Asian country and even placed on an internet server where it was vulnerable to hacking and interception.

The leaked data, which has forced the Indian Navy to assess the vulnerability of the Scorpene submarines ordered from French shipbuilder DCNS under a $3.5 billion deal, is believed to have been “removed” from the firm in Paris in 2011 by a former French Navy officer, The Australian reported late on Friday.

The officer, who worked as a subcontractor for DCNS, and a French colleague, took the data to a Southeast Asian country where they were employed by a private company run by a Western businessman. After the two Frenchmen were sacked, the secret data was sent to the company’s head office in Singapore. The data was also placed on a server on April 18, 2013, and it was “dangerously vulnerable to hacking or interception by a foreign intelligence service”, the daily reported. “It is not known whether the data stayed on this server for a few days or for a year,” it added.he data was also sent by the firm on a disk by regular post to a person in Sydney in 2013. This person, experienced in defence issues, was “stunned” when he saw the documents detailing the secret capabilities of the Indian submarines, the report said

he leak about the submarines’ secret combat capabilities has turned the spotlight on the project. The row has erupted as India prepares to deploy its first French-designed diesel-electric version early next year

PROJECT-75

THE SUBMARINES are being built with French technology at the Mazagon Dock Ltd in Mumbai. India has ordered six Scorpene-class submarines in a deal worth `23,562 crore THE 66-METRE submarine can dive up to a depth of 300 metres to elude enemy detection.

SIGNIFICANCE

THE NAVY is betting on the project to sharpen its underwater attack capabilities INDIA OPERATES 13 ageing conventional submarines against China, which has 53 diesel-electric attack submarines LIMITED SERVICEABILITY is also an issue as some boats are not battle-ready at all times

PACKING EXTRA PUNCH

SOON, THE fifth and sixth Scorpene boats will be equipped with air-independent propulsion system, which will help the submarines recharge their batteries without surfacing for more than three weeks

DELAY

THE NAVY was supposed to induct its first Scorpene submarine in 2012 but the project was delayed due to problems related to transfer of technology IN 2009, the comptroller and auditor general (CAG) came down heavily on the government for giving undue favours to DCNS while awarding the submarine deal in 2005

Special forces of the Indian Army had made a cross-border raid on two camps of N-E insurgents in Myanmar on June 9, 2015, after 18 soldiers were killed in an ambush in Manipur. File photo

Nay Pyi Taw, August 22Myanmar military authorities have denied that there was a recent exchange of gunfire on its soil between the Indian army and the outlawed National Socialist Council of Nagaland (khaplang) (NSCN-K), the media reported on Monday.The denial referred to some reports that the Indian Army entered the Myanmar territory and fought with Naga rebels on August 19 and that the fighting lasted for three hours, Xinhua news agency reported.Myanmar military’s information quoted witnesses as saying that the gun battle occurred inside India, one mile west of the Myanmar-India border, and not in Myanmar.However, Myanmar military columns on the border were on full alert to ward off foreign troops from entering the country, the military authorities said.Myanmar would neither accept nor encourage any armed group to station on its soil to potentially terrorise the government, it said.The authorities insisted that Myanmar armed forces was working in tandem with Indian army and rendering cooperation in patrolling the border and exchanging information.A leading English daily recently reported a gun battle between Indian army and the NSCN-K near the Indo-Myanmar border.The Indian army had carried out a strike in June last year after the Naga group had ambushed and killed 18 soldiers in Manipur.Myanmar army had then warned India against such incidentsThe Naga militants abrogated a 14-year-old ceasefire in March last year. — Agencies

Nearly three decades after National Security Guard came into being, the war scenario and tactics have changed across the globe. As the toughest fighting force of the country prepares its men for any kind of battle, anywhere in the world, The Tribune gets rare access to his ‘holy land’ in Manesar(Haryana). Here, men challenge themselves before they are made to take on the enemy.

Let’s get up-close with it in Hollywood’s American Sniper: Wayne Kyle (to his sons): There are three types of people in this world: sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs. Some people prefer to believe that evil doesn’t exist in the world, and if it ever darkened their doorstep, they wouldn’t know how to protect themselves. Those are the sheep. Wayne Kyle: Then you’ve got predators who use violence to prey on the weak. They’re the wolves. Wayne Kyle: And then there are those blessed with the gift of aggression, an overpowering need to protect the flock. These men are the rare breed who live to confront the wolf. They are the sheepdog. Ironically, man learns only from strife, conflicts and failures. The hardest lesson comes when before overcoming an ‘enemy’; you overcome yourself. Usually, it’s the time when all odds are stacked against you, and you tell yourself convincingly, winningly: na dainyam, na palayanam (no begging for mercy, no escape). That’s when you steel yourself, becoming the protector — a ‘sheepdog’. There are men and women like that. In our country we call them Black Cats. They live to protect the innocents. They must not die: That’s their lesson number one. Brought up by the fiercely challenging ideal of ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going,’ they learn to live off the terrain, breathe like a fish, sleep like a dog and attack like a thunderbolt. They are also called commandos of the elite National Security Guard (NSG). They are tasked to conduct counter-terrorism operations, including counter-hijacking, bomb disposal, post-blast investigation and hostage-rescue operations. They have the best of weapons for close combat such as MP5 A5 and A3 assault rifles, the Glock 19 pistols and many more which they would not like to disclose. They could be unarmed, but would respond to a crisis with the lethal power of their reflexes honed by Israel’s Krav Maga, Indian and Chinese martial arts.They compete with US Special Forces, Russia’s Spetsnaz, Israel’s Sayeret, UK’s SAS, Germany’s GSG-9 and others. They also train with the special forces of the Army, Garuds of the Indian Air Force and MARCOS of the Indian Navy. Commented an unnamed American observer after a joint session with the NSG: “Their (NSG’s) training is simply brutal.” What he meant was that NSG makes a super soldier out of an ordinary man.The NSG entrants are Army and paramilitary forces personnel who are among the best in their units, or they volunteer. They are made to undergo a three-month rigorous training at the NSG Training Centre in Manesar (Haryana). Only after passing three tests at the end of each month do they become NSG commandos. Here’s how their training schedule looks like: It was 10.30 pm on a cold December night last year. “Fall in,” roared an NSG instructor to the trainees. The 400 men stood in attention in front of their barracks, each in battle fatigue, carrying a haversack and a thick stick shaped as a rifle, weighing over 16 kg. A thick layer of fog blinded them as a cold wind whistles past. Everybody was exhausted, having been shaken awake from just two-hour sleep. Suddenly, they were drenched with cold water. This was their wake-up call. “The instructor ordered us to start running for 5km. The exercise continued for three grueling hours. A trainee was injured in his ankle and we had to carry him as well. We never leave our man behind,” remembers Major Vikram Singh (name changed on request). They all knew if a trainee fails, he is sent ‘home’. Singh trained with the NSG for the Commando Course from last October to December and is now serving with the federal counter-terrorism force.“This course breaks you,” said Vikram. “The idea is to dissolve the limits of your body and mind. You have to keep pushing yourself and tell yourself to try harder. Do whatever, but finish the course,” he says. There is no rest, he said. “Meals are supposed to be a break time, ideally, but an instructor can order you to run 10 km with your load, back and forth, to get a meal token and finish eating within an hour,” he said. Even sleep time fluctuates, and it can range for anything between 4 hours to two hours a day. At the firing range, they are taught with the NSG’s mainstay weapons. The targets are different; it could be a hostage. “Five points for the head. Three for the chest and two for the arm. Negative marking is given for shooting at the hostage,” says Major Akshay Rathore (name changed at request), the weapons instructor. The firing starts as early as 3.15 am and can last till 1 pm. “A commando has to train in every kind of weather. Training does not stop. If they have to be commandos, they will have to train in this heat and humidity as well,” said Akshay.Their instructors move and run with them, keeping a hawk’s eye on each activity, leading by example. Akshay addresses them: “Are you ready for the next activity?” he asks. “We are,” is the response from the assembly. There is a hint of tiredness to it, but at the same time powerful to motivate one into being battle ready. “Thoda hass lo! (laugh a little),” he says. Just graduating from the Commando Course does not mean the training is over. The two Special Action Group battalions used for counter-terrorism and anti-hijacking have a more intense training regime. One example is the “room intervention.” “We train them to be ready for anything. If they enter a house through a window, we place a mock bomb at the window sill or can place a target of a terrorist holding a person hostage with a gun,” said an officer.Havildar Mahender Yadav (name changed), whose parent unit is the Army Physical Training Corps, is among the finest NSG instructor. “When 50 men run on your every command, you feel the responsibility,” he says. “The proudest moment is when the trainees become commandos and request you to click a photo. They remember you when you meet them in their units. You remember them when they win medals,” says Mahender.

Bitter lessons

• Post 26/11: Former NSG DG JN Choudhury says the force must have a real-time, accurate intelligence such as the number of terrorists, their locations and the weapons they are using. Second is coordination with the state police.
• Post-Pathankot: NSG’s bomb disposal expert Lt. Col. Niranjan died after a grenade booby-trapped on a dead terrorist body exploded. This was owing to the fact that such an eventuality didn’t form a part of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
• Lethal IEDs: India had the highest number of Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blasts in the world last year. Pakistan stood second, reveals the 2016 edition of the NSG journal, Bombshell. The need is for more specialists
• From Dhaka & Paris: NSG teams travelled to the two cities following terror attacks. The lesson from Dhaka was: “Hold back as long as talks are on. But the first shot must invite a decisive action.”

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 7

The Army’s plans to equip its infantry combat vehicles (ICVs) with air conditioners for protecting the sensitive opto-electronic systems installed has apparently run out of gas.Not only were the trials of installing such systems, known as environmental control units (ECUs), unsuccessful as the engines persistently overheated beyond permissible limits, but 2,077 ECUs worth Rs 219.48 crore that were procured, could not be fitted in the ICVs.The BMP-2/2K ICVs are equipped with missile carriage and firing capability. They are highly sensitive and degrade under extreme heat and dust. For their efficient functioning and also to reduce fatigue of the crew, the Army had projected the need to provide ECUs on these vehicles in 2006.As per latest audit reports, the trial of the equipment was carried out on ICV for 30-km run, but the engine temperature increased to 110°C after 10 km of running, against the permissible oil and water temperature level of 80°C and 100°C, respectively. The dynamic trials were yet again carried out but the results showed that the oil and water temperature had again gone up to 105°C and 107°C, respectively. Notwithstanding these findings, the equipment was recommended by the user trial team for induction, stating that the increase in temperature was within limits.The installation of ECUs in ICVs was put on hold by the Director General Mechanised Forces due to technical flaws, resulting in overheating of the ICV engines and reduction in efficiency. Certain modifications were incorporated, but the problem of engine overheating persisted, for which no conclusive reasons/solution were found.

Chandigarh: Lt Gen IS Ghuman has taken over as the Chief of Staff (CoS), Western Command, on promotion today. Prior to this, he was serving on a staff appointment at Headquarters Eastern Command in Kolkata. He has relieved Lt Gen Gurdeep Singh who has retired. An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Kharakvasla, Lt Gen Ghuman was commissioned into The Brigade of Guards in 1981. He commanded an infantry battalion in Operation Parakram and then an infantry brigade and an infantry division in varied operational roles. He has also attended the National Defence College course. tns

‘CAUSE OF CONCERN’ Navy insists vessels not compromised, report sought from French shipbuilder

NEW DELHI: India was scrambling on Wednesday to assess the vulnerability of its key Scorpene submarines being built in collaboration with a French company after seemingly crucial details of its combat capabilities were leaked.

The government sought a report from French shipbuilder DCNS, which bagged the `23,562crore ($3.5 billion) contract for six submarines in 2005, after The Australian newspaper reported that the documents could prove an “intelligence bonanza” for India’s rivals such as Pakistan and China.The leak runs into 22,400 pages.

The military establishment insisted that the leak was a “cause of concern” but was not serious enough to compromise the Scorpene submarines. However, an official statement issued by DCNS in Paris acknowledged that the sensitive data made public was a “serious matter”.

“This investigation will determine the exact nature of the leaked documents, the potential damages to DCNS customers as well as the responsibilities for this leakage,” DCNS said.

Defence minister Manohar Parrikar sought a report from the Indian Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba on the “extent of the leak”. Parrikar, who said he learnt of the leak at midnight on Tuesday, described it as a “case of hacking”.

“The first step is to identify if it’s related to us, and anyway it’s not all 100% leak,” said Parrikar, who also met the navy chief to assess the situation.

The Indian Navy said the source of the leak was apparently “from overseas and not in India”. A naval spokesman said the “available information is being examined” at the defence ministry and that “an analysis is being carried out by the concerned specialists”.

The main opposition Congress demanded a “complete security audit” of the defence ministry following the leak. Party spokesman Randeep Surjewala said the audit should be done by a sitting Supreme Court judge.

India has ordered six Scorpene-class submarines and the first vessel built at Mumbai’s state-run Mazagon Docks began sea trials in May and is expected to be inducted early next year. The Scorpene is expected to become the main conventional submarine of the Indian fleet and replace the ageing Russian Kilo-class and German HDW vessels that are almost three decades old.

The report in The Australian said the DCNS documents, marked “Restricted Scorpene India”, detail highly classified information such as the levels of noise the submarines make at various speeds, where the submarine crew can speak safely to avoid detection by the enemy, magnetic, electromagnetic and infra-red data, and noise specifications of the propeller and radiated noise levels when the submarine surfaces.

The leak could also trigger alarm in countries that operate a variant of the Scorpene, or have ordered the submarine, including Malaysia, Chile and Brazil, the report said.

The Australian posted several redacted pages from what appeared to be an operating manual for the submarine on its website. It reported it had seen 4,457 pages on the Scorpene’s underwater sensors, 4,209 pages on its abovewater sensors, 4,301 pages on its combat management system, 493 pages on its torpedo launch system and specifications, 6,841 pages on the communications system and 2,138 on its navigation systems.

The report said DCNS had “implied – but did not say directly – that the leak might have occurred at India’s end, rather than from France”. However, The Australian said it had learnt the data on the Scorpene was written in France for India in 2011 and is suspected of being removed from France in the same year by a former French Navy officer who was at that time a DCNS subcontractor.

The data is then believed to have been taken to a company in southeast Asia, possibly to assist in a commercial venture for a regional navy.

Peter Roberts of the Royal United Services Institute in London said the most serious implications from the leak were the “frequency signature details” associated with the Scorpene. “The major risk, following this disclosure, is from the exposure of data related to propeller and radiated noise – as a result, Indian submarines will be more vulnerable after the data breach,” he told HT.

“The implications of the data loss for the arms community are important in the short term, but probably procedural in the medium to long term. DCNS will obviously have to make some reassurances to the Indian government, and possibly undertake some mitigation work.”

Under the plan, the Defence Ministry has set a target of induction of an additional 170 fighter jets apart from other equipment. — PTI file photo

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 23

In a major shift to ramp up military readiness, the Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has prepared an ambitious plan to spend some $233 billion over the next 11 years on buying or producing new equipment, including warships, fighter jets, submarines, aircraft carriers and some 500 helicopters.The sum of $223 billion dollars translates into some Rs 15,00,000 crore (Rs 15 lakh crore) and is projected as part of the financial requirements for the long-term integrated perspective Plan (LTIPP) for the period 2012-2027.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)The MoD seeks an annual 8 per cent hike in existing capital spending that allocated in each year’s budget for new military equipment meant for the Army, Navy and the Indian Air Force (IAF).Under the ambitious plan, the MoD has set a target, including induction of an additional 170 fighter jets for the IAF, 12 additional submarines, 500 various types of helicopters, additional artillery guns and tanks for the Indian Army and another indigenous sea-borne aircraft carrier.Though the plan looks very big, the MoD seeks a gradual and assured hike. The capital spending for the present fiscal ending March 31, 2017 is Rs 86,340 crore (approx $12.69 billion). The entire planned hike for the next 11 years will average out to an annual spend of $20.27 billion.The move comes after Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar asked the Ministry to layout the financial cost of the military equipment acquisition planned and bring it ‘within sync’ of the existing average hikes possible in the Union Budget. “An annual hike of 8 per cent for capital spending is within sync of the anticipated hikes that for now vary on a year-to-year basis,” sources said.The LTIPP lists out the equipment that is needed but it did not have the detailed cost of each thing. LTIPP already has a Technology Perspective Capability Road Map (TPCRM) to enable the DRDO, Defence Public Sector Unit and the private industry to plan their research and development.The LTIPP lays down the expected contingencies of the services and what would be the response. It lists capabilities and expected time frames. Further how these options would be achieved whether by indigenous development or by procurement from aboard.In the case of targets form copters, submarines, fighter jets, warships and aircraft carrier, the plan is ‘Make in India’. Various joint ventures are being encouraged with foreign manufacturers.The MoD has also laid down a plan to cut on unnecessary expenditure by clubbing together procurement of three services to prevent duplication of efforts and wasteful expenses.