INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
India will kick-off the formal acquisition process for the 31 top-notch weaponised MQ-9B drones from the US early next month, with the aim
being to ink the actual contract within this fiscal and complete induction of all the remotely-piloted aircraft systems in phases over the
request) for the 31 MQ-9B drones will be sent to the US government in the first week of July
top defence ministry officer said on Saturday
The inter-governmental deal for the 31 drones -- 15 Sea Guardians for Navy and eight Sky Guardians each for Army and IAF with their
associated mobile ground control systems, weapons and other equipment -- is estimated to be worth around $3.5 billion (almost Rs 29,000
crore).Under the deal, the high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) drones will be assembled in India
long-range over-the-horizon ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) and strike capabilities both in the Indian Ocean Region
(IOR) as well as the land frontiers with China and Pakistan
The plan is to deploy the drones at three tri-Service ISR command and control centres in the northwest, northeast and south India
The two unarmed Sea Guardians, acquired by the Navy on lease from General Atomics in September 2020, are based at naval air station INS
Rajali at Arakkonam in Tamil Nadu
They have been effectively used for high-end ISR missions both in the IOR as well as the 3,488-km Line of Actual Control with China
The MQ-9B deal is also expected to help DRDO eventually develop indigenous armed HALE drones capable of firing missiles and precision-guided
munitions on enemy targets before returning to their home bases to re-arm for their next mission like manned fighter jets.While lagging far
behind China in this critical military arena, the Indian armed forces do have a large number of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), mainly of
Israeli-origin, for real-time reconnaissance and precision-targeting
July last year, DRDO had tested the stealth wing flying testbed (SWiFT), a scaled down version of what is eventually supposed be a
remotely-piloted strike aircraft (RPSA)
But it will take several years to become operational.
