Indian Navy Rescues Crew of Attacked US-Owned Cargo Vessel in Gulf of Aden

By Logan Williams, Warrior Editorial Fellow

Although India has opted not to join the United States-led, Operation Prosperity Guardian. Instead, India has acted as a sort of first-responder, handling cases of piracy that may have been overlooked, due to the United States’ and other countries’ preoccupation with the Houthi threat. India’s Navy even rescued the crew of a United States’ cargo vessel that had been attacked in the Gulf of Aden. Thus, despite not participating in joint operations with the United States and its allies, India is still essential to the security of the Red Sea region.

The upcoming arrival of 31 MQ-9B Reaper attack and surveillance drones to India from the US indicates India will indeed be well positioned to sustain an increase security enhancing surveillance and presence throughout the Middle East largely in support of anti-terrorist and anti-piracy concerns.

More likely, however, the purchase of these drones is a thinly-veiled sign of India’s anxieties about China’s growing aggression in the region, especially following the 2020 conflagration in the Galwan River Valley, which has transformed into a Cold War-like stalemate.

Indeed, the Indian concerns about Chinese aggression provide much of the motivation for the newfound closeness between the United States and India.

There is some question, however, about the Reaper drones’ usefulness in another confrontation with China.

Reaper drones lack any stealth functionality, and thus, they are not a survivable aircraft. These drones are the legacy of an era in which the United States always possessed uncontested air-dominance, so Predator and Reaper drones could fly unchallenged in air-space across the Middle East, as the United States’ best weapon for the annihilation of terrorists.