Defence minister Rajnath Singh will leave for a five-day trip to the US beginning August 21.
After the Indian Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) cleared the MQ-9B Predator drone deal with amendments and the Indian Navy’s tie-up with HawkEye 360 as part of the much awaited QUAD Indo-Pacific Partnership of Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA), people familiar with the details said on Sunday. The DAC meeting took place on July 31.
While the defence minister will further cement defence cooperation with his US counterpart Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon on August 23, the India-US armed UAV deal stands crystallised after the DAC cleared amendments pertaining to the percentage of indigenisation as well as putting a DRDO developed and manufactured anti-shipping missile on the Predator. It is understood that the indigenisation perscentage now stands at 30 per cent and the idea of putting a DRDO missile on MQ-9B Predator was dropped as the manufacturer General Atomics was charging a huge sum of money for its integration into the weaponized platform.
Apart from the Predator deal, involving the acquisition of 31 UAVs by India at a cost of $3.9 billion along with missiles and guided bombs, the Modi government has cleared the Indian Navy joining the IPMDA, which was announced by QUAD nations in May 2022. This means that the Indian Navy will follow the other QUAD nations in tying up with the HawkEye 360 commercial operator for transparency in the Indo-Pacific through satellites. The company owns some 36-odd satellites and will provide full details to QUAD nations on dark shipping, terrorism, drug trafficking, arms trafficking and information about adversaries whose vessels switch off their transponders while doing covert surveillance in the Indo-Pacific.
The HawkEye 360 satellites pick up any radio frequency emission for a vessel that has deliberately switched off its transponders as has been the case with pirates attacking commercial shipping around the Gulf of Aden and terrorists using boats to target western warships in the Arabian Sea.
The IPMDA is designed to keep QUAD nations on the same page in the Indo-Pacific and prevent any country from impeding freedom of navigation in the contested South-East Asia. It is understood that the Indian Navy will tie up with HawkEye 360 as soon as it gets instructions from the government.
While the India-US deal on transfer of technology for GE-414 engines, which will power the Tejas Mark II, is going as per schedule, India is witnessing a delay in off-the-shelf supply of GE-404 engines that power the Tejas Mark IA fighter. India has taken up the issue with the US and the defence minister will only emphasise the urgent requirement.
It is understood that during his US trip from August 21-25, Singh will also exchange notes on rising Asian powers like China as well as non-state players using drones to target merchant shipping after the Israel war on Gaza. It is pertinent that while Singh will be in the US, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on a much awaited state visit to Poland and war-torn Ukraine at the same time.