With Quad nations joining hands on maritime domain awareness in the Indo-Pacific, India plans to speed up acquisition of armed drones from the US even as the Indian Navy is working towards extending the lease of two General Atomics manufactured Sea Guardian surveillance drones which expires in January 2024. The two Sea Guardian drones are based at Rajali Naval Base in Tamil Nadu.

While the cost of armed Predator drones (MQ-9B) will be a determining factor in the acquisition program, the Indian Navy is satisfied with the output of its surveillance version, the Sea Guardian, since two of them were leased in 2020 for the maritime domain surveillance.

Given the endurance of the drones, the Sea Guardians provide real-time domain awareness from the eastern board of Africa and Gulf of Aden to Sunda Straits in Indonesia and beyond. The leased drones were also used to survey the Chinese build-up all along the LAC after the May 2020 aggression by the PLA in East Ladakh.

The acquisition of armed drones, hi-tech technology transfer and Indo-Pacific will be among the topics of discussion when Prime Minister Narendra Modi goes for his State visit to the US next June 22. The state dinner will be preceded by International Yoga Day on June 21 and a diaspora function at Chicago later.

The preparations for the US visit, said to be a game changer, was discussed during PM Modi interaction with US President Joe Biden and in a bilateral meeting between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on the sidelines of the G-7 summit.

The preparations for the US visit, said to be a game changer, was discussed during PM Modi interaction with US President Joe Biden and in a bilateral meeting between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on the sidelines of the G-7 summit.