The deal, signed within the presence of high defence and strategic brass of India within the nationwide capital, marks a big upswing in army ties between the 2 nations, officers advised PTI.
Picture posted on X by @GenAtomics_ASI
India on Tuesday inked a mega take care of the US to obtain 31 Predator long-endurance drones from American defence main Normal Atomics below the overseas army gross sales route at a value of almost USD 4 billion to spice up the Indian army’s fight prowess alongside the contested borders with China.
The deal, signed within the presence of high defence and strategic brass of India within the nationwide capital, marks a big upswing in army ties between the 2 nations, officers advised PTI.
The procurement of the drones was finalised simply weeks forward of the US presidential elections. Final week, the Cupboard Committee on Safety (CCS) headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi cleared the procurement of the MQ-9B ‘hunter-killer’ drones.
Vivek Lall, the Chief Government of Normal Atomics International Company who performed a key function within the negotiations on the deal, was current on the signing ceremony.
The drones are being procured at an estimated price of round USD 4 billion, officers stated. India is buying drones primarily to crank up the surveillance equipment of the armed forces, particularly alongside the contested frontier with China.
In June final yr, the Defence Ministry authorised the procurement of the MQ-9B Predator armed drones from the US below a government-to-government framework.
The MQ-9B drone is a variant of the MQ-9 “Reaper” which was used to launch a modified model of the Hellfire missile that eradicated al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri within the coronary heart of Kabul in July 2022. Whereas the Navy will get 15 Sea Guardian drones, the Indian Air Pressure and the Military will every get eight Sky Guardian drones.
The high-altitude long-endurance drones are able to remaining airborne for over 35 hours and may carry 4 Hellfire missiles and round 450 kgs of bombs. The Sea Guardian drones are being procured as they’ll perform quite a lot of roles, together with maritime surveillance, anti-submarine warfare, and over-the-horizon focusing on amongst others.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by DNA workers and is revealed from PTI)
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