Indian Navy Inducts New US Predator Drones For Surveillance In Indian Ocean Amid Tensions With China

The Indian Navy has inducted two Predator drones from an American firm on a year-long lease to carry out surveillance in the Indian Ocean region and possibly across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the future, ANI reports.

The Navy utilised the emergency procurement powers provided by the Ministry of Defence in the wake of the ongoing conflict with China to procure these drones. They have an endurance capacity of being in the air for over 30 hours and have already begun flying operations.

“The drones arrived in India in the second week of November and were inducted into flying operations on 21 November at Indian Navy base at INS Rajali,” the news agency quoted top government sources.

Meanwhile, the three services even plan to obtain 18 more such drones from the US going ahead. The Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020 and the Defence Procurement Manual 2009 allow for leasing weapon systems cuts down expenditure as the vendor is responsible for the maintenance of the system.

As per this agreement, the American crew accompanying the equipment will assist in the maintenance and technical issues whereas the Indian Navy officials will be handling the control of the joystick and sortie planning. Moreover, the Indian Navy will exclusively hold the rights of the data collected via the drones.