India is in an advanced stage of negotiations with the US to procure 30 MQ-9B Predator armed drones at a cost of over $3 billion to crank up its overall surveillance apparatus along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China and in the Indian Ocean, people familiar with the development said on Sunday.
The long-endurance-hunter-killer drones are being procured for the three services as they can carry out a variety of roles including maritime surveillance, anti-submarine warfare, over-the-horizon targeting and hitting stationary ground targets.
The MQ-9B drone is a variant of MQ-9 “Reaper” that was reportedly used to fire a modified version of the Hellfire missile which eliminated al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in the heart of Kabul last month.
Authoritative sources in the defence establishment said talks between New Delhi and Washington are underway for the government-to-government procurement of the drones manufactured by US defence major General Atomics, and rejected reports that the deal is off the table.
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