GG News Bureau
Washington, 2nd Feb. The deal for 30 MQ-9B predator armed drones, worth more than USD 3 billion, is expected to be completed soon, allowing New Delhi to strengthen its overall surveillance apparatus along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and the Indian Ocean.
The “ball is now in India’s court,” according to officials familiar with the situation, after being in the works for more than five years.
The MQ-9B predator armed drones (ten each for three services) are seen as an important part of India’s national security and defence requirements.
The officials did not go into further detail, but they ruled out any bureaucratic or regulatory issues.
“I have to take that back and check on that,” Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs Jessica Lewis told reporters here when asked for the delay in the deal, which was announced in the summer of 2017.
It has been pending for some time now, for reasons that are unknown to the general public. The issues, however, are believed to have been discussed during meetings between visiting National Security Advisor Ajit K Doval and top American leaders, including his counterpart Jake Sullivan.
During the meetings, both sides are said to have expressed a desire to expedite the drone deal. India is hoping that a quick decision will allow it to receive MQ-98 predator armed drones, which will strengthen its national security and surveillance not only in the Indian Ocean, but also along the LAC.
According to people familiar with the situation, the Biden administration is eager to finalize this agreement as soon as possible because it will create jobs and be politically advantageous ahead of next year’s presidential elections.
“MQ-9B would enable its Indian military users to fly farther than anything else in this category, spend more time in the air and handle a greater diversity of missions than any other similar aircraft. The SkyGuardian and SeaGuardian can deliver full-motion video in virtually any conditions, day or night, as well as other kinds of detailed sensing with their onboard systems,” Vivek Lall, chief executive, General Atomics Global Corporation said.
“The aircraft also can carry a wide variety of specialist payloads if they must adapt to a specific mission. A SkyGuardian becomes a SeaGuardian, for example, when it carries a 360-degree maritime search radar that gives users a quality of maritime domain awareness they can’t achieve any other way,” he said.
Artificial intelligence, machine learning and other sophisticated technologies help unlock the rich feed of insight from these aircraft, analyse it and distribute it to those who need it to make quick decisions, Lall said.
“Other payloads include communications relays – so the aircraft can serve as a node connecting forces over land or sea – or other intelligence, surveillance or military systems. These aircraft can conduct search and rescue, help fight wildfires, support customs authorities, augment naval forces and take many other tasks,” he said.
“In short, MQ-9B is the premier multi-role, long endurance remotely piloted aircraft in the world today. It is in high demand. Japan, Belgium, Great Britain, and several other nations are flying or are on track to begin flying them,” Lall said.
Earlier in the day, Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs Lewis told reporters that the defence relationship between India and the United States has gained momentum.
“When we look at the relationship with India and our security cooperation with India and the defense relationship with India over the past 10 years or even a little bit longer, we’ve really seen that grow and evolve and change…in very positive ways,” Lewis said in response to a question.
“I think all the discussions (during this week’s iCET dialogue) are in that context,” she said, a day after the two countries embarked upon the ambitious initiative in critical and emerging technologies.
“Everything from Indian procurement and or consideration of US systems and India’s competition, when they’re having competitions for specific systems, to just the across-the-board relationship between our defense department, the Ministry of Defense. So we see this as a place where we want to continue to work closely,” she said.
“Without getting into any of the details of the conversation, I think it’s a very rich conversation right now. And one that we’re deeply committed to not only continuing but to have growth,” Lewis said.
Responding to a question, the State Department official said the US is ready to help India diversify its defence needs.
“When it comes to India, I think there are a whole host of options. Obviously, we need to work those out with the Indian government, see what the needs are. But I think there are a whole host of options in terms of us being able to find additional systems, ways to cooperate. Obviously respecting India’s own sort of rules of the game in terms of how that works. There’s a lot more that we can do together and hope we can continue to work on that,” Lewis said.
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