US approves sale of 31 armed drones to India for $3.99 billion

New Delhi: President Joe Biden’s administration on Thursday notified the American Congress about the proposed sale of 31 MQ-9B Sky Guardian drones, manufactured by the General Atomics of the United States, to India at an estimated cost of $3.99 billion.

“This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by helping to strengthen the US-Indian strategic relationship and to improve the security of a major defence partner, which continues to be an important force for political stability, peace, and economic progress in the Indo-Pacific and South Asia region,” the Defence Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) of the US government stated in Washington DC on Thursday.

The DSCA delivered the required certification notifying the American Congress of the “possible sale” of the armed drones after the US State Department approved it.

The Biden Administration’s move to notify the American Congress about the proposed sale of the drones to India dismissed the speculation that the allegation by Washington DC about New Delhi’s role in a plot to assassinate Khalistani Sikh extremist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun might cast a shadow on the proposed deal.

“The proposed sale will improve India’s capability to meet current and future threats by enabling unmanned surveillance and reconnaissance patrols in sea lanes of operation,” the US DSCA stated on Thursday. “India has demonstrated a commitment to modernizing its military and will have no difficulty absorbing these articles and services into its armed forces.”

The US is of the view that the proposed sale of the drones to India would not alter the basic military balance in the region.

The Indian Navy will get 15 of the 31 drones manufactured by the General Atomics of the US. The Indian Army and the Indian Air Force will also get eight each. The drones from the US will augment the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities of India, amid China’s continued belligerence along the disputed boundary between the two nations in the Himalayas. The 31 MQ-9B drones will come with all paraphernalia, including 170 AGM-114R Hellfire missiles, 16 M36E9 Hellfire Captive Air Training Missiles, 310 GBU-39B/B Laser Small Diameter Bombs (LSDB).

“The principal contractor will be General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Poway, CA. The purchaser typically requests offsets. Any offset agreement will be defined in negotiations between the purchaser and the contractor,” the US DSCA informed the American Congress.

New Delhi’s decision to buy the MQ-9B high-altitude and long-endurance armed drones from General Atomics is one of the two major defence deals, which were announced when Biden hosted Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington DC on June 21 and 22 last year. The other big-ticket deal was the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) the GE Aerospace headquartered in Cincinnati inked with the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited based out of Bengaluru for transfer of technology and joint production of F414 fighter jet engines in India for the Indian Air Force.

The US prosecutors on November 29 alleged that Nikhil Gupta, an Indian incarcerated in the Czech Republic, had been an associate of an official of an agency of the Government of India and the official had engaged him to hire a hitman to assassinate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the general counsel of the secessionist organization Sikhs for Justice.

The allegation by Washington DC against New Delhi followed a similar claim by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government in Ottawa about the role of India in the June 18 killing of another Khalistani Sikh extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar at the parking lot of a gurdwara at Surrey in the British Columbia province of Canada. Though New Delhi dismissed the allegation, the Biden Administration has been nudging the Government of India to cooperate in the probe launched by the agencies of the Government of Canada in connection with the murder. It was also revealed that the US had provided intelligence inputs to help Canada accuse India of the killing of Nijjar.

Contrary to its reaction to the accusations by Ottawa, New Delhi was quick to launch a probe in the wake of the allegation by Washington DC.

The allegation by the US prosecutors against India, however, cast a shadow over the bilateral relations between the two nations. Biden turned down an invitation from the Modi Government to attend the Republic Day ceremony of India as the chief guest, citing preoccupations.