The US-made MQ-9B drones, designed for long endurance and high-altitude surveillance will provide India a boost in its monitoring programme. A variant of this drone was recently used to launch a missile that killed Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri
The MQ-9B drones from the US would be a big upgrade in India’s monitoring programme. Image Courtesy: General Atomics Global Corporation
If all goes as planned, India will soon possess 30 MQ-9B Predator armed drones, cranking up its surveillance apparatus along the frontier with China as well as in the Indian Ocean region.
According to reports, sources in the know said that India is in “advanced stages” of negotiations with the United States to procure the Predator armed drones for over $3 billion.
In fact, Vivek Lall, the chief executive for Global Atomics Global Corporation, the firm behind the drones, told PTI that the programme is at an advanced stage of discussions between the two governments. “We understand that the MQ-9B acquisition programme is at an advanced stage of discussion between the US and Indian governments,” he was quoted as saying to news agency PTI.
The deal was also reportedly discussed in the fourth two-plus-two foreign and defence ministerial dialogue between India and the US in Washington in April.
As the buzz around these armed drones gets louder, let’s find out what these are all about.
All about the Predator drones
The MQ-9B drone is the first hunter-killer unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) designed for long-endurance and high-altitude surveillance.
The Reaper has a 950-shaft-horsepower (712 kW) turboprop engine, allowing it to carry 15 times more ordnance payload and cruise at about three times the speed of its predecessor.
The craft can be flown for over 27 hours in the air at a maximum altitude of 50,000 feet.
According to defence contractors General Atomics, the drones possess the capabilities to be used for long-endurance intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions over a wide-area. Easy configuration of the drone makes it easier to operate the aircraft during missions.
The Predator drones have a long history. They were conceived in the early 1990s for aerial reconnaissance and forward observation roles after the failure of the GNAT 750 in operations over Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1993 and 1994. By 1995, the RQ-1 Predator became more commonly used and was used in combat in the US war in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, the 2011 Libyan civil war, and the 2014 intervention in Syria.
In 1999, the United States Air Force wanted a more advanced version of the RQ-1 Predator and so so General Atomics began work on the Predator B, which entered operations in 2007 as the MQ-9 Reaper.
Today, MQ-9B has two variants – SkyGuardian and SeaGuardian. The latter is fitted with special equipment intended for maritime surveillance and anti-submarine warfare.
Also read: Drones are a reality: Time for India to prepare for security challenges
Who else uses these drones?
The US Air Force extensively uses the MQ-9 drones and it has been reported that most recently the Americans used the drone to fire the Hellfire R9X missile that killed the leader of Al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan’s Kabul.
Besides this, it has been reported that the MQ-9 Reaper was used in the killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani outside the Baghdad airport in January 2020. Soleimani was the top commander of Iran’s paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and headed its elite Quds Force. He was in-charge of operations in the Middle East.
India’s deal for the drones
India has long been wanting to purchase the Predator drones and the deal first took root while Donald Trump was in power in America in 2017. In 2017, when Narendra Modi had visited the US, the two heads had discussed the deal.
However, that deal didn’t materialise at all.
In March 2021, it was announced that the Indian Navy, Army and Air Force would finally jointly procure 30 armed versions of the American unmanned aerial system in a $3-billion deal.
Why does India want these drones?
The addition of the Predator drones in the Indian arsenal is important as the nation continues to have strained relations with two of its neighbours — Pakistan and China.
The need for this weaponry became even more prominent after the skirmishes between Indian and Chinese forces at the border in 2020.
In fact, India has considerably stepped up its surveillance along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) using a fleet of unmanned drones and the addition of the MQ-9B drones from the US would be a big upgrade in its monitoring programme.
Moreover, the Indian Navy wants to be able to keep an eye on the movements of Chinese warships and submarines in the Indian Ocean and these drones would be just perfect for the task.
China’s increasing naval activity in the Indian Ocean Region, including the docking of the Yuan Wang 5 ship in Sri Lanka, makes the need for the Reaper drone even more significant for India.
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