Armed Drones From US In $3 Bn Deal to be procured for all three Services
In 2018, the US had offered India the armed version of the Guardian drones, which were originally been offered to India for sale as unarmed version for surveillance purposes only.
India was earlier evaluating both the unarmed Sea Guardian drones for the Navy and the armed Predator B for attack options, but there was a growing feeling that both surveillance and attack could be done by the same drone. The prohibitive price involving American drones was a major factor for consideration. The Navy which had initially planned for 22 Sea Guardians but since they were priced at over $2 billion, So it brought down the number to just 12.
However, now since all the three services want weaponised drones, a decision has been taken to jointly pursue the deal. According to the deal, India is likely to acquire 30 MQ-9 Reaper or Predator B, 10 each for the three services. The Navy, Army and Air Force, all have been Impressed with the performance of the two leased Sea Guardian drones and are now going for joint procurement.
According to sources in the defence establishment, initially one of the three services were not on board about procuring the armed predator drones but now all three are finally on the same page The Defence Minister Rajnath Singh-led Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) could take a final decision on this “soon”. This would be the first tri-service procurement since Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat was appointed to steer the Indian armed forces into a more united force, both in terms of operational doctrine and procurement.
The erstwhile Trump administration had expected the deal for 30 armed drones to be announced at the two-plus-two ministerial dialogue in New Delhi on 27 October 2020. However, at that time the three Services were still evaluating the drones. So India refused to the hard American push to seal the deal then.
The MQ-9B has an endurance of 48 hours and a range of over 6,000 nautical miles. It comes with nine hard-points, capable of carrying sensors and laser-guided bombs besides air-to-ground missiles, with a maximum payload of two tonnes.
The Navy, which is the lead agency for procurement of HALE (High Altitude Long Endurance) UAVs, will seek the Acceptance of Necessity (AON) from the DAC.
The Navy had inducted two Sea Guardian drones on lease under emergency procurement.
According to sources, the Navy is really impressed with the two UAVs it took on lease from the US firm General Atomics.
This development comes as India pursues ‘Project Cheetah’, under which a Rs 5,500 crore contract is being taken up to upgrade the ‘Heron’ medium-altitude long-endurance drone fleet with all three services into an armed one.
The Navy is also pursuing another contract for 10 Naval Shipborne Unmanned Aerial System, for which American firm Boeing is the front runner.
It is also looking at leasing minesweeper vessels and helicopters, as reported in December last year.
