India, United States authorize $4 bn weaponised Predator drone bargain; 14 points to understand–

October 15, 2024, came to be a historical day for India as it tattooed a virtually $4 billion handle the United States for the purchase of 31 weaponised MQ-9B Predator drones from American support significant General Atomics under the international armed forces sales course. This agreement will certainly aid enhance India’s armed forces battle expertise along the opposed boundaries with China.

The bargain was checked in visibility of leading support and critical brass of India in New Delhi and notes a substantial growth in armed forces connections in between both nations, a record by PTI priced estimate authorities as claiming.

Vivek Lall, the Chief Executive of General Atomics Global Corporation, that played a vital function in the arrangements on the bargain, existed at the finalizing event.

In June in 2015, the Ministry of Defence accepted the purchase of the MQ-9B Predator armed drones from the United States under a government-to-government structure.

The bargain will certainly boost the security capacities of the Indian militaries.

14 aspects of India, United States weaponised Predator drone bargain

1 – The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), On October 9, accepted the procurement of 31 long-range armed drones.

2 – Of these, 15 Sea Guardians will certainly be alloted to the Indian Navy, while the Air Force and the Army will certainly each obtain 8Sky Guardians They will certainly include in both that are currently on lease by the Indian Navy.

3 – The MQ-9B agreement is India’s second-largest handle the United States after the induction of 11 C-17 Globemaster- III strategic-airlift airplane by IAF at a price of around $4.5 billion.

4 – The 31 remotely-piloted airplane systems will certainly be outfitted with 4 Hellfire rockets, 450 kgs of GBU-39B precision-guided move bombs, navigating systems, sensing unit collections and mobile ground control systems.

5 – A record by ToI priced estimate a protection ministry authorities as claiming that the shipment of MQ-9B ‘hunter-killer’ high-altitude, long-endurance drones will certainly begin in regarding 4 years and be finished in 6 years.

6 – The support ministry authorities even more claimed, “There will be performance-based logistics (PBL) for the MQ-9Bs through the depot-level MRO for eight years or 1.5 lakh flying hours, whichever is earlier.”  

7 – India’s military capabilities in undertaking long-range strategic ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) missions will be enhanced with the induction of MQ-9B drones.  

8 – The drones will add more teeth to the Indian armed forces and help them carry out precision strikes against high-value targets, especially in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) where China has been rapidly expanding naval presence and turnaround facilities.

9 – The Indian government has been planning to deploy the MQ-9B drones at ISR command and control centres at Arakkonam and Porbandar for the IOR and Sarsawa and Gorakhpur for the land borders.

10 – The MQ-9B drones are designed to fly for almost 40 hours at altitudes over 40,000-feet.  

11 – These drones are considered to be far better than China’s existing armed drones like Cai Hong-4 and Wing Loong-II, which it also supplies to Pakistan.

12 – The MQ-9Bs are controlled by satellites.

13 – Only some NATO countries and close military allies of the US have the Predator or Reaper drones.  

14 – The MQ-9B drone is a variant of the MQ-9 “Reaper” which was utilized to release a changed variation of the Hellfire rocket that removed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in the heart of Kabul in July 2022.

There will certainly be no transfer of modern technology (TODDLER) in the MQ-9B bargain, nevertheless, General Atomics will certainly supply experience and working as a consultant to Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and others to establish such durable drones with the ability of shooting rockets and precision-guided artilleries on adversary targets.