United States and India discuss supply of drones

By Alimat Aliyeva

Representatives of General Atomics Corporation held talks in New Delhi on the supply of a batch of MQ-9B Sky Guardian reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to the Indian Armed Forces in the amount of $3.99 billion, Azernews reports.

According to The Economic Times newspaper, citing official sources, the deal has not yet been completed, the negotiations concerned the provision of American technologies for the production of drones at Indian enterprises, including in the states of Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. It is expected that additional facilities for the production of components for the MQ-9B will be built in the north and northeast of India. General Atomics previously gave preliminary consent to produce MQ-9B components in India with a volume of 8-9% of the transaction amount. India is aiming to increase this figure to 15-20%.

General Atomics has already partnered with India's Bharat Forge to manufacture UAV components and has committed to establishing a global MQ-9B drone maintenance center in India. Unlike previous agreements, according to which foreign companies had to invest 30% of the contract value in the Indian defense and aerospace industries, this rule was abolished for the drone deal with the United States and for other similar agreements that India enters into at the intergovernmental level.

The US administration approved the delivery of 31 MQ-9B UAVs to India in February, increasing its estimated cost from $3 billion to $3.99 billion. As part of the deal, India intends to receive 161 global positioning and navigation systems, 170 AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, as well as aerial bombs, ground control systems, engines and other equipment.