DCNS Leak Drama - CEO DCNS Australia on design similarities of Scorpene and Shortfin

The DCNS Scorpene (above). Click on image to make larger/readable. 

Note the Scorpene's similar shape to Australia's future DCNS Barracuda (below). Major similarities between the Barracuda SSN and the Shortfin SSK derivative will be in hull shape and pressure hull steel. (Diagram courtesy of DCNS).

Computer modelling, which is constantly used by commercial and strategic competitors (think design bureaus in China and Russia) can heavily compensate for the size difference between Scorpenes and Shortfins. This allows competitors to register similar characteristics and vulnerabilities. 

COMMENT

The massive leak of 20,000+ pages of DCNS Scorpene documents reported overnight is of high value to DCNS's commercial competitors and/or strategic value to competitors of Scorpene owning countries. Scorpene owners are Malaysia, India, Chile and Brazil (once Brazil’s 4 Scorpenes and 1 nuclear Scorpene (SN-BR) are built). The Scorpene’s much smaller size (up to 2,000 tonnes submerged) might have been expected to make them very different from the (4,500 tonnes surfaced) Shortfin-Barracuda SSKs that Australia is buying.

Regarding the similarity of the Scorpene and Shortfin designs it is significant what Sean Costello (CEO DCNS Australia) stated in ASPI's The Strategist on 8 April 2016. He wrote: 
"The main area where Barracuda design references were not used was in the area of the electrical system (batteries and voltage), power generation (induction and diesel generators) and propulsion (main electric motor). In these systems the design reference comes from the Scorpene class of diesel electric submarines, or from an existing submarine technology within DCNS. Existing technologies are re-used in all systems in the Shortfin Barracuda Block 1A. System by system, the whole ship performance is validated and the design loop closed."

If the now known Scorpene characteristics can be related by computer modelling (or directly by Costello of DCNS) to the Shortfin this does not bode well for the Shortfin's future stealth. Computer modelling, which is constantly used by commercial and strategic competitors (think submarine design bureaus in China and Russia) can heavily compensate for the size difference between Scorpenes and Shortfins.

Also the later Scorpene models (for India and Brazil) were designed over the same period (2000-2010) as the DCNS Barracudas (from which the Shortfin derives).

Major similarities between the Scorpene and the Shortfin will be in hull shape and pressure hull steel - which together influence acoustic and magnetic signatures that an enemy looks for.

BTW - The document leak might also give Pakistan’s competitors insights into Pakistan’s five DCNS Agosta class completed 1979-2006. The Agostas completion overlapped with the first two Scorpenes completed for Chile in 2005 and 2006. Scorpenes and Agostas also share portions of the French SUBTICS combat system (see my details on SUBTICS for Scorpenes and Agostas here).

BACKGROUND

Quartz India, August 23-24, 2016 reports http://qz.com/764665/764665/ :

“Over 20,000 pages of top-secret data about India’s mega submarine project leaked, says The Australian”

“India may have a suffered a huge strategic setback, particularly on the naval front.

Some 22,400 pages of data related to the six Scorpene-class submarines that the French government-owned company DCNS was building for the Indian Navy have been leaked, The Australian reported on Aug.24. “The stunning leak… details the entire secret combat capability of the six Scorpene-class submarines..,” the report said.

The leaked documents list out the frequencies at which the submarines gather intelligence and the levels of noise the subs make at various speeds, the news report said. They also contain information on the submarine’s diving depths, range, and endurance, besides its magnetic, electromagnetic, and infrared data.

It is not yet clear how, where, and to whom the top-secret information was leaked. Nevertheless, India’s naval strategies may suffer grievously following this development, particularly if the leaked documents are made available to India’s rivals Pakistan and China.

See whole Quartz article.

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Fallout in Australia:

In a major embarrassment for DCNS Australia’s Uma Patel and Stephanie Anderson for ABC News Online, August 24, 2016 report: “French submarine builder information leak has 'no bearing' on Australia, Malcolm Turnbull says”. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has downplayed the effect of leaks from the French shipbuilder chosen to build Australia's next generation of submarines.

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The Australian newspaper, August 24, 2016, reported :

"The US will be alarmed by the leak of the DCNS data because Australia hopes to install an American combat system — with the latest US stealth technology — in the French Shortfin Barracuda. If Washington does not feel confident that its “crown jewels’’ of stealth technology can be protected, it may decline to give Australia its state-of-the-art combat system

...DCNS Australia this month signed a deed of agreement with the Defence Department, ­paving the way for talks over the contract which will guide the design phase of the new ­submarines.” See WHOLE ARTICLE in The Australian.

Pete