During Prime Minister Narendra Modi's upcoming state visit to Washington, one of the two countries' largest defense accords will be revealed. The US-India strategic alliance would be strengthened by the agreement to purchase 18 MQ-9 Predator drones from that country for $3 billion (about Rs. 24,000 crores). In addition, the nations will soon complete a multi-billion dollar arrangement to build General Electric F 414 fighter aircraft engines in India. It will also be revealed that two MQ-9 Sea Guardian drones will be leased to the Indian Navy under a separate Rs 800 crore agreement.
The agreements will solidify the US as India's second-largest supplier of defensive equipment, behind Russia. US military equipment has been sold to India for $18 billion since 2008.
The MQ-9 is a High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) drone that is guided by satellite. It can operate for 35 hours and fly at a height of 45,000 feet. It can find the enemy and launch bombs and missiles at targets thanks to electronic support measures and radar sensors.
Two unarmed MQ-9 Sea Guardians that the Indian Navy leased from the US have been in use. Following the Ladakh standoff in 2020, they were established under the Indian Navy's emergency powers and were designed to keep an eye on the PLA Navy's deployments in the Indian Ocean. INS Rajali, a naval air station 70 kilometers west of Chennai, is the base for both RPAs.
The purchase of the MQ-9 has been planned for six years. The Navy suggested buying 22 Sea Guardians in 2017. The defense ministry changed the case the next year into a tri-services acquisition of 30 drones, with ten units for each service. Due to funding constraints, the number of units was reduced to just six in order to support locally produced equipment.
The new contract would be signed by the Indian defense ministry and the foreign vendor, whereas the previous one was between the Indian Navy and the US company General Atomics under the navy's emergency procurement powers. This agreement is special because there won't be any technology transfers or defense offsets.
In less than five years, the drones will be delivered. With this agreement, India would also become the first non-NATO country to obtain armed unmanned aerial vehicles from the US for deployment in the Indian Ocean and along its borders.
The Predator Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA), which made its first flight in 1994, is a smaller version of the MQ-9B, sometimes referred to as the Predator-B. Since they have been placed in strategic locations around the world, Predator-series RPAs have been the backbone of the US's global presence. An MQ-9 Reaper drone was forced to crash on March 14th of this year after being intercepted by a Russian Su-27 fighter jet near Crimea.
The MQ-9s are preferable to the leased RPAs, according to a senior officer, because they are military aircraft as opposed to the leased RPAs, which are similar to standard leased aircraft. The upgraded MQ-9s that we are purchasing have a new radar and higher service ceilings. They are allowed to fly in regulated airspace since they have a due respect radar. The existing (leased) drones are not military aircraft and fly at a height of about 26000 feet.
Even satellite coverage cannot compete with the area coverage and endurance of these spacecraft.
Satellites are wonderful for strategic surveillance, but these aircraft, with their endurance and operating height, are particularly effective for tactical observation in tactical areas, according to Rear Admiral Sudhir Pillai (Retd).
Armed drones have changed combat. Drones are being used by both sides in the Russia-Ukraine conflict to hit bunkers and military installations. According to a RUSI study from May 2023, 10,000 Ukrainian drones were shot down by Russia each month. Closer to home, the Indian Army has been extremely concerned about Chinese drones along the LAC. Chinese drones violated airspace in Arunachal Pradesh in December 2022, thus the Indian Air Force was forced to scramble its fighter fighters to stop them.
Drones are also being used by Pakistan to carry drugs and weapons across the border. In Jammu and Kashmir, an Indian military installation was assaulted by a terror group with Pakistani roots in June 2021 using drones that fired shaped explosive charges.
Pakistan has worked with China to create UAVs and UCAVs, and there are worries that Pakistan would receive drone technology from Turkey given its excellent advancements in the field. Before indigenous solutions can be deployed, the Predator acquisition gives the Indian armed forces the ability to increase effective monitoring on their land and marine borders.
"Drone technology has been developed by the US, Russia, China, and, intriguingly, Turkey. The answer is that it is worrying. They have the ability to counter drones, so we need to focus on that. Regarding drone technology and surveillance, there is currently a gap in all three services. We must fill that gap. According to Lt Gen Vinod G Khandare (Retd), Principal Advisor, Ministry of Defence, "We are dependent on foreign technology and are working on indigenous technology."
The use of tiny, medium, and big drones, as well as those with a variety of payloads, is the way of the future in combat. General Khandare asserts that India has to make significant advancements in its drone production.
