India Gets Armed Reaper Drones From US – Protect Border With China?

by Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

The massively increased US-Indian military cooperation continues to head in new directions with Naval cooperation, fighter-jet alignment possibilities, US-Army Stryker vehicles and now … Reaper drones.

The Indian Ministry of Defence has sent a special Letter of Request as part of a proposed deal for 31 MQ-9B Reaper drones, a specific element of growing India-US military collaboration cited in a June 22 US-India statement published during Prime Minister’s state visit, according to an interesting write up in Asia Nikkea.

Indian plans regarding the new drones have taken specific shape and “be assembled” in India. The Asia Nikkea essay says India has decided to allocate 15 drones for the Navy and eight each for the Indian Army and Air Force.

Of equal even greater significance, the Indian Reapers will not only be equipped with cutting edge surveillance technology for ISR but will also be armed with kinetic weapons, electronic warfare, defensive counter air and airborne early warning.

There are several critical variables to consider here related to the Reaper itself and the tactical or strategic circumstances surrounding the arrival of the drones. The General Atomics drones built for India will be “export” variants, meaning they will be tailored for India’s tactical needs and distinguish the Indian Reapers from the US force of Reapers. However, there are many impactful innovations and upgrades being built into US Reapers which may or may not be incorporated into the Indian variants. US Air Force Reapers now fly with a universal weapons interface enabling the drone to fly with a much wider arsenal of weapons designed to massively expand the attack envelope for the weapon. The Reaper now fires the AIM-9X in addition to the AGM-114 Hellfire missile, a 500-pound laser-guided weapon called the GBU-12 Paveway II, and GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munitions or JDAMs.

Reapers for India

It is not difficult to imagine the tactical significance Reapers would bring to the Indian military, particularly given the country’s need to surveil threat developments along the Line of Actual Control border between Northern India and Western China. The area has of course been a source of intense dispute between India and China which has even at times resulted in small “skirmishes” between India and PLA forces causing several deaths. Surveillance in the form of Reapers, however, could greatly improve India’s ability to detect threatening movements, actions or intentions from the PLA. Such ISR in this area is quite significant given China’s ambitious and aggressive militarization of Tibetan mountainous and plateau areas in Western China. The PLA has been building high-altitude capable mortar weapons and vehicles as well as combat vehicle platforms engineered specifically for tactical operations in mountainous plateau areas. Reaper drones, engineered with long-range EO/IR sensors could well be positioned to detect PLA movements on the Chinese side of the border. Medium altitude surveillance, such as that offered by the Reaper, could prove quite valuable in higher altitude mountainous areas where smaller, hand-launched or lower altitude drones might be challenged to gather imagery.