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.
Former Discussion With Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) on US Navy Drones
Without stealth technology, however, these drones will be vulnerable to Chinese air defenses and aircraft. These drones serve no purpose in contested air-space, thus, in a near-peer conflict, they will likely morph into defensive weaponry, rather than strike aircraft. These drones will make exceptional border-guards, turning encroaching Chinese soldiers to ash, but they will not enable India to conduct offensive, cross-border operations of its own, should that need arise.
This weapons sale is part of a larger trend toward friendship between the United States and India, due largely to the extraordinary leadership of the Biden Administration. The Modi Government has expressed a sincere desire to continue to strengthen this essential partnership. In recent years, real and tangible progress has been made, toward strengthening the ties that bind India and the United States together, as new and true friends. For example, the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) was recently established to connect key global economies into one massive, multi-modal, trade and infrastructure network; or, the United States-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET), which is a commitment between these two states to cooperate toward advancing the development of key, strategic technologies — primarily, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, semiconductors, and wireless telecommunications.
Modi’s government has also moved toward establishing extensive defense ties with the United States, especially as India procures the F-21, a new fighter jet designed by Lockheed Martin in concert with the Indian Air Force, specifically tailored to meet the unique challenges that India expects to face in the coming years, and intended to be built by Indian laborers in India’s manufacturing plants.
India is one of the last remaining states with significant, wealth, power, and influence, that remains agnostic about its role within the world order, as well as its ideological and geostrategic alignment. Thus, India possesses a great deal of influence — where India goes, the world is likely to follow. The United States’ burgeoning partnership with India is one of its most critical friendships, and thus, this relationship warrants close monitoring and study, as it continues to develop.
Logan Williams currently studies at the University of Connecticut. He is an International Affairs Researcher; Work Published in Newspapers, Magazines, and Journals, Such As: Geopolitics Magazine, Modern Diplomacy, Tufts University’s The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, Democracy Paradox, Diario Las Américas, International Affairs Forum, Fair Observer, History Is Now Magazine, UNC at Chapel Hill’s American Diplomacy, The Center for Military Modernization’s Warrior Maven Magazine,
