General Atomics, a major American energy and defence corporation, on Tuesday, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US will boost defence industries on both sides to converge and innovate.

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This comes after the Union defence ministry last week approved the procurement of 30 MQ-9B Predator armed drones from the US under a government-to-government framework.

Speaking exclusively to CNBC-TV18's Parikshit Luthra, Vivek Lall, chief executive officer of General Atomics Global Corporation, said predator drones have well-proven capabilities across various scenarios including maritime scenarios.

The MQ-9B drone is a variant of the MQ-9 “Reaper” which was used to launch a modified version of the Hellfire missile that eliminated al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in the heart of Kabul in July last year.

Lall said Modi's visit is a great time for co-development and co-production by defence companies in India and the USA and the purchase of reaper drones by New Delhi is a government-to-government deal.

The MQ-9B has two variants — SkyGuardian and its sibling SeaGuardian. According to the General Atomics, MQ-9B Sea Guardian can carry up to 12,500 lb (5,670 kg) and has a fuel capacity of 6,000 lb (2,721 kg).

The drone can operate at over 40,000 feet, giving the Indian military surveillance capacity in the high-altitude Himalayan border areas. The Predator also has a maximum endurance of 40 hours, making it useful for long-hour surveillance.

Talking about INDUS-X, the CEO said the new platform aims to capitalise defence innovation ecosystem and allows startups in defence in both countries to exhibit cutting-edge technology to one another. INDUS-X stands for enhanced strategic and defence partnership between India and the US.

Further, he mentioned that the critical and emerging technologies (ICET) initiative launched by the national security advisers (NSAs) of both countries, can accelerate inter-agency cooperation and focus on strategic areas where there's strong political consensus and a sense of urgency.

Lall noted that resilient supply chains are critical to many sectors including defence manufacturing and it's very important that like-minded nations, partners and allies work together to ensure that the security of supply chains remains resilient.

"So between US and India, there are great innovation ecosystems in both countries and how do you actually merge that so that it's complimentary and they feed on each other to grow the pie so to speak in terms of innovation among like-minded partners and allies," he said.

"So I think some of these agreements will provide the framework for industry to step up at every level, whether they're large, medium, or small, or they are startups to actually fit into that framework and grow not only the companies and the industries, but indeed create that fabric of national security," he added.

(Edited by : Jomy Jos Pullokaran)

First Published:Jun 20, 2023 8:41 PM IST