India to get modern drones from US

India's two plus two talks with America have been completed.

Defense Minister Rajnath Singh has discussed many important issues with US Defense Minister Lloyd Austin. The biggest thing that came out from this conversation was that the American combat drone MQ-9B will be available to India very soon.

This is the same drone that killed the world's most dangerous terrorist Al Zawahiri in Kabul on 31 July 2022. This attack was carried out with MQ-9B Reaper drone.

US Defense Minister Austin has also said that India should get drone capability as soon as possible. The American government is continuously making efforts for this.

India plans to purchase 31 MQ-9B Hunter Killer drones from the three armies. Out of these, 15 drones will be given to the Indian Navy. Eight drones each will be given to the Indian Air Force and the Indian Army. A formal request for this has already been sent. The contract for its procurement process is ready to be completed in this financial year.

This deal for 31 MQ-9B Hunter Killer drones of the three armies is worth about Rs 25 thousand crores. This deal is very important from the security point of view of India. This will significantly increase the strength of the security forces. It will help in monitoring and dealing with enemies from land to sea. This will increase surveillance and the ability to prevent any potential threat will also increase significantly.

These drones can be used in humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, search and rescue, airborne early warning, electronic warfare, anti-surface warfare and anti-submarine warfare. It can also be used for intelligence gathering and surveillance.

Sky Guardian and Sea Guardian are two variants of MQ-9B drone. Sea Guardian drones are used for maritime surveillance. Sky Guardian drones are deployed to land borders. It has a flying capability of up to 40 hours at a time in any weather.

It has the ability to fly at a height of up to 40 thousand feet and monitor an area of 1900 km in a single flight. MQ-9B drone travels up to 482 kilometers in one hour and fire missiles and ammunition like fighter planes.

MQ-9B drones are equipped with air-to-ground missiles and also anti-submarine warfare. MQ-9B drone is equipped with maritime radar and is flown by a team of two pilots and a sensor operator present on the ground. Pilots control the flight, landing and path of the MQ-9B drone. Sensor operators keep an eye on the MQ-9B drone's cameras and surveillance equipment.