Mahiyar Rohinton Patel, Pune
The cabinet Committee on Security headed by the Prime Minister of India has cleared two long awaited proposals of the defense forces. Firstly, the long delayed and critical acquisition of the Predator MQ-9B drones and secondly the indigenous manufacturing of two nuclear powered conventional strike submarines.
The Predator drones which have finally got the cabinet nod were first announced in 2021 and the project has faced numerous delays. The 31 predator drones were meant for all three armed forces. Out of the 31 sanctioned 16 were for the navy, 8 for the airforce and 7 for the Army Aviation Corps. As part of the deal finalized yesterday 30% of the components used in the weapon will be sourced from local suppliers. General Atomics, the company which manufactures the Predator drones has also committed to setting up a global Maintenance Repair Overhaul (MRO) facility in the country. This commitment by a leading American defense manufacturer has come in light of a flat 5% GST rate for all aviation repair and overhaul components. The Predator drones are excellent survelor according to defense experts with much better image quality than the current mainstay of the navy which is the Poseidon-8I. It also has better range and endurance, raising the maritime awareness of the defense forces.
The two new nuclear powered conventional strike submarines (SSN) are going to be very important additions to the naval underwater inventory of the country, they will complement the 6 nuclear powered ballistic missile firing submarines. The SSN can stay underwater for very long periods of time, they can stay underwater as long as the supplies on the ship last and the human crew is able to function. For comparison, a diesel-electric submarine needs to surface at least once a day to recharge their batteries through their snorkel.
These new submarines are an important deterrent as the Chinese already have six Shang class nuclear-powered submarines. There was an earlier agreement with Russia for the leasing out of their own nuclear powered submarines ‘Akula’ class submarines has been delayed till 2028, the delay has been brought on by the Russo-Ukraine war.