MQ-9B Predator drone Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has left for a three-day US tour. This is his first state visit. This visit of PM Modi, who arrived in America at the invitation of US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, is considered very important. On this tour, PM Modi will hold bilateral talks with US President Biden. Apart from this, he will do yoga on Yoga Day in New York.

Also, he will attend the dinner organized at the White House. There will also be defense deals between the two countries on this visit of PM, Modi, how much will India benefit from this deal? How strong will India become by getting the state-of-the-art Predator drone, how it operates and what is its speciality, let’s take a look at it.

That even before Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited America, India had decided to buy Predator drones from the American company General Atomics. The proposal was approved by the Defense Acquisition Council on June 15. Under this, India will buy 31 drones from the US, which will include 15 MQ-9B Sea Guardians and 16 Sky Guardians.

What is the specialty of the Predator drone?

The biggest feature of this unmanned drone is that the enemy does not even get a clue of its coming and going, and this drone comes back after doing its work. The length of this drone is 11 meters and its wingspan is 20 meters. This drone can fly continuously for 35 hours. This drone can fly at a speed of 444 kilometres per hour. It can fly up to a height of 50 thousand feet.

This drone can easily take off with a weight of 1746 kg including missiles and bombs. Once in flight, it can easily travel about 1800 km.

Compared to other drones around the world, this drone is capable of flying longer distances and making missions more successful than any aircraft. Day or night, with the help of Sky Guardian and Sea Guardian, it can get clear video at full speed in any condition.

This is how it is operated

Indian Army personnel can operate the MQ-9 drone sitting in the control room. It will react exactly as it is instructed from the control room. It is very simple to operate. Please tell me that this drone is currently only in Israel and America.

After the delivery of the drone is completed, India’s security strength will increase manifold. It is known that this drone is equipped with in-built wide-area maritime radar, an automatic identification system, electronic support measures and a self-contained anti-submarine warfare (ASW) kit.

India needs it

This question arises in your mind what is the need for this drone in India, then tell that the MQ-9B drone is considered very important from the point of view of India’s national security and defence needs. At present, India’s relations with its neighbouring countries China and Pakistan are tense. With this approach, getting this drone will increase the strength of the army.

Due to this, there will be a big change in India’s surveillance system along the border with China, which is called the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Through this drone, the movements of China can be closely monitored. Through this, the Indian Navy will also be able to keep a close watch on the activities happening in the Indian Ocean. This will also curb the drugs and weapons being sent to India through drones from across Pakistan. This drone will provide strength to the Indian Army.

All three armies will have drones

All these 31 drones will work under a tri-service command. But will not be distributed equally. According to the future requirement, the three operational centres will decide their role based on mission-specific roles as directed by the Theater Commander and the Chief of Staff Committee.

This drone killed Sulemani and Jawahiri

What is the power of this drone and what it can do, it has already answered these questions. Let us inform you that, with the help of this drone, America had put the most wanted terrorists Sulemani and Zawahiri to sleep. On January 3, 2020, this drone killed Soleimani, commander of the Iranian Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Force, in a missile attack on the Iraqi capital Baghdad airport.

After this, in August 2022, America killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul, Afghanistan, with the same drone. A Hellfire RX-9 missile was fired from this drone. It hit the exact target, due to which Jawahiri could be killed.