President Biden welcomes progress towards India's procurement of 31 MQ-9B drones from U.S.

U.S. President Joe Biden lauded the effort of India in procurement of 31 MQ-9B drones and further boost reciprocal supply of military hardware between the two sides.

U.S. President Joe Biden welcomed the progress made towards India sealing procurement of 31 long-endurance MQ-9B armed drones from American defence major General Atomics, as he and Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to boost reciprocal supply of military hardware between the two sides.

The U.S. President hosted PM Modi at his personal home in Wilmington, Delaware on Saturday (September 21, 2024) and the two leaders held wide-ranging talks covering various key aspects of India-U.S. ties including ways to further ramp up bilateral defence and military partnership.

A joint fact-sheet on Modi-Biden talks said the two leaders recognised the remarkable progress achieved under the US-India defence industrial cooperation roadmap, including ongoing collaboration to advance priority co-production arrangements for jet engines, munitions, and ground mobility systems.

"President Biden welcomed the progress towards India concluding procurement of 31 General Atomics MQ-9B remotely piloted aircraft and their associated equipment, which will enhance the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities of India's armed forces across all domains," it said.

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India is procuring the 'hunter-killer' drones (16 Sky Guardian and 15 Sea Guardian) from U.S. Defence major General Atomics at a cost of over $3 billion primarily to crank up its surveillance apparatus along the frontier with China as well as in the Indian Ocean region.

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