MOSCOW, August 3 Engineers of British nuclear submarines have involved specialists from Russia and Belarus in developing software, The Telegraph newspaper writes, citing documents from the Ministry of Defense.
«British nuclear submarine engineers are using software developed in Russia and Belarus, which is contrary to the rules of the Ministry of Defense,» the article says.
According to the newspaper, employees with access to classified information from Great Britain were supposed to be involved in the creation of the software, but the task was partially transferred to developers from Siberia and Minsk. The Defense Department considered this a «serious threat to the defense of the UK» and launched an investigation in the summer of 2022, which was completed in February 2023, The Telegraph notes.
It eventually emerged that Rolls-Royce Submarines, which operates the UK's nuclear submarine fleet, had subcontracted the development to digital consultancy WM Reply. It, in turn, hired specialists from Belarus, one of whom was actually working from home in Siberia. The firm kept this fact secret and discussed whether it could hide the location of the developers by giving them fake names of deceased Britons.
«Rolls-Royce has fully investigated this matter. As they have stated, at no point was the integrity of the system compromised,» a company spokesman said, adding that WM Reply employees and their subcontractors did not have access to information on secure servers.
Rolls-Royce Submarines said it had stopped working with WM Reply following the investigation. An unnamed spokesman for the British Ministry of Defence said the incident did not impact the security of the kingdom.