The ministry’s initial clearance for the procurement comes just days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi leaves for a state visit to the US next week.
Biden has made deepening defence ties with India a priority to counter China’s growing dominance, and has offered to collaborate on military technology even though the two countries lack a formal security alliance. The ministry’s “Acceptance of Necessity” is the first step in the procurement process, which now needs clearance from the Cabinet.
The drones will predominantly be used by the navy in the Indian Ocean Region. Both of India’s traditional adversaries, China and Pakistan, have sophisticated air defence systems that can limit the use of the drones along India’s land borders. The Navy has leased two MQ-9B unarmed drones since November 2020 for surveillance.
A week earlier American Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin had spent two days in Delhi and announced a joint road map for defence industry cooperation, providing a boost to India’s ambitions of manufacturing more weapons within the country. The US has been trying to wean India away from its traditional arms dependence on Russia, its largest exporter of weapons for decades.
The Biden administration is also poised to approve manufacturing of General Electric’s engines in India for the domestically produced fighter jets, which will also be announced during Modi’s visit.
