India is expected to clear the purchase of 30 MQ-1 Predator drones from the United States after a high-level Defence Procurement Board or DPB, headed by Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar and including the three vice chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) after months of dialogue with the US.
The purchase of the MQ-1 Predator, a remotely piloted aircraft that can carry missiles is an important force multiplier and this particular drone has seen a lot of action in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, reports Timesnow.
As per reports ten Predators, armed with guided bombs and Hellfire missiles, will go to the Army, Navy and Air Force each and now the final clearance is awaited from Defence Acquisition Council headed by defence minister Rajnath Singh and including the three chiefs for clearance.
The Indian Navy is already operating two unarmed Predator drones from the US and is fully satisfied with the performance of two leased unarmed drones and had in fact pushed for early acquisition of MQ-9 drones to meet the maritime challenge posed by China.
As of now, China and Pakistan have the armed Wing Loong II drone with precision strike capability. However, how reliable is this attack drone remains to be seen.
The Indian Navy was designated as lead by both Army and Air Force in the acquisition of MQ-9 drones and the sale will be made through the US Foreign Military Sales route under government to government scheme.
The Indian Navy is most satisfied with the performance of the two unarmed Predator drones on lease from the US as allowed maritime domain awareness from Sunda Strait in Indonesia to the eastern seaboard of Africa.
Meanwhile, the Indian Army is set to acquire six Heron high altitude long endurance drones from Israel on lease and parallelly upgrade the existing Heron drones with data-link and better radars to meet the challenge posed by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aggressive tactics in East Ladakh as well as in the Xinjiang region across Karakoram Pass.
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