MQ9 Predator Acquisition from U.S, News Updates and Discussions

ezsasa

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Man what's the point of wasting 3bn $ on these predator drones? It's not like we are going to use them on LAC or even killing terrorists across LoC. Looks more like a Hafta to US again.
it’s for coastal surveillance too and we need the experience to operate these anyways. Predators drone are gold standard in it’s vertical.

if TAPAS 201 takes 4/5 years to operationalise and Predator can come in 2 years, that’s 3 years of operational experience gained otherwise.

But yes, they are less useful against traditional military, especially the armed drones.
 

Cactus09

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And DFI goes into meltdown yet again. Some clarifications:

1. It's a TRISERVICE procurement of armed version modified from the unarmed version just for the navy.
2. Usefullness- use your goddarn common sense.
3. Look up 1,2

The modifications to the requirements were done after CDS came into office. This was a demand put forward by the armed forces themselves. They know what the hell do they actually need. Not the bureaucracy or politicians.
 
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bajiraopeshwa

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I am sure drones are already being used for tracking purposes by IA in Kashmir. Several factors come into play using Predator drones in Valley;
Drone strikes need lot of precision and intelligence which is not possible because of the nature of the insurgency in Kashmir.
Drone strikes often causes civilian casualties which would heat up the situation and human rights activists would further get a cause to shout. In short shit storm for GOI.
Drone strikes are very less effective and the geography of Kashmir would allow the militants to adapt quickly.
Yes, using drones internally will have objections so it needs to be handled with care. But if an encounter is already going on, a drone could be called in instead of our forces risking their lives placing explosives.

Another use of drones could be to tackle infiltration. There are many instances where drones track infiltrators but are not able to take them out (we lost 5 para 1 few months back). Reapers would help here also.
 

Sanglamorre

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Maybe reverse engineering is on someone's mind.. take whatever would be useful for our GHATAK program
So many for reverse engineering?

I don't have a problem if the forces think they need the drones, but what could be the purpose really intrigues me.
 

Gandaberunda

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US fleecing us badly...$19m fly away cost of drone is being sold to us at $100m a piece. Is weapons operating maintenance and training cost is so high? Why only for India US hardwares comes costly than others who buys at relatively cheaply
 

cereal killer

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Yes, using drones internally will have objections so it needs to be handled with care. But if an encounter is already going on, a drone could be called in instead of our forces risking their lives placing explosives.

Another use of drones could be to tackle infiltration. There are many instances where drones track infiltrators but are not able to take them out (we lost 5 para 1 few months back). Reapers would help here also.
Let's see through.. I guess Indian Navy can make better use of these drones. I hope along with ToT we get to use them better.
 

cereal killer

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US fleecing us badly...$19m fly away cost of drone is being sold to us at $100m a piece. Is weapons operating maintenance and training cost is so high? Why only for India US hardwares comes costly than others who buys at relatively cheaply
That's why it is called Hafta.. A non alliance partner. Though I do agree with the cost.. It's just too much. 22 Apache Helis costed around 2.1 bn $ I guess.. Even that deal looks much better compared to this one.
 

shade

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Why doesn't paying hafta actually protect us T_T
 

Akula

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it’s for coastal surveillance too and we need the experience to operate these anyways. Predators drone are gold standard in it’s vertical.

if TAPAS 201 takes 4/5 years to operationalise and Predator can come in 2 years, that’s 3 years of operational experience gained otherwise.

But yes, they are less useful against traditional military, especially the armed drones.
But we are operating Heron TP drones, which is bigger than Predator drone.
 

Knowitall

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That's Heron not Heron TP. It looks like this...
View attachment 60022
See this article:-



The heron drones we have can easily be converted to heron TP the armed forces can do that under project cheetah.

Now is this being done in secret I don't know.

I had assumed we had already started with the project when we were spending a lot of money on recent classified projects when the standoff started.
 

Aaj ka hero

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Man what's the point of wasting 3bn $ on these predator drones? It's not like we are going to use them on LAC or even killing terrorists across LoC. Looks more like a Hafta to US again.
No, actually I was waiting for these news.
The answer of your doubt will be "why USA still keeps U-2 spy planes around?" and "if it is coming with a weapon package what's wrong", definitely every time in warfare it has been proved why these looker planes are necessary.
For us mig-25 was sr-71 and we retired it because of high maintenance cost.
But the job of it was left for NOT SO designed for intelligence types of planes.
 

omaebakabaka

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Man what's the point of wasting 3bn $ on these predator drones? It's not like we are going to use them on LAC or even killing terrorists across LoC. Looks more like a Hafta to US again.
Maldives, Nepal, BD, Myanmar, keep a watch on coast and gaining unmanned operations and logistics experiences. 3b is not a big deal for us.
 

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