Exclusive: US Congress green signals Predator drone sale to India

The US State Department is expected to notify the sale of 31 Predator armed drones to India in the next 24 hours.

Published on: Feb 1, 2024, 10:16:37 IST

By Shishir Gupta

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New Delhi: The US State Department has informed Predator Drone manufacturer General Atomics that the US Congress today has cleared the ‘tiered review’ of the 31 MQ9B drone sale to India and official Congressional notification will be submitted within 24 hours. The drone maker has also informed the same to the highest levels of the Modi government including the national security establishment.

MQ-9B Predator manufactured by General Atomics

While the Narendra Modi government is tight-lipped about the entire deal, sources in Washington have confirmed that the notification for the sale of 31 MQ(B Predator armed drones to India will be issued later in the day. While the Indian Navy will get 15 out of the 31 drones, the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force will get eight each of high altitude long endurance drones from the US.

US State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller went on record stating : “ Generally, the US-India Defence Partnership has seen significant growth over the past decade. The drone deal is a proposed sale that was announced during Prime Minister Modi’s visit last year. We believe it offers significant potential to further advance strategic technology cooperation with India and military cooperation in the region. Congress plays an important role in the US arms transfer process. We routinely consult with the members of Congress on the Foreigb Affairs Committees before our formal notification, so we can address questions that they might have…..”’

It is understood that even the GE-414 engine deal with the US is well on track with the CEO of the company informing the apex levels of the Modi government. Both the drone and the aircraft engine deals are being handled by the two national security advisors of India and US.

The Indian Navy already operates two unarmed Predator drones from Rajali air base in Tamil Nadu, which are on lease from the US. The two drones have taken Indian maritime domain awareness to a different level as the Indian Navy battles both the Houthi missiles and Somali Pirates in the Red Sea.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More

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