India looks for unmanned combat aircraft from U.S.

New Delhi : The Indian armed forces have suffered from time and technology challenges over the last 30 years, but apparently to make up for the lost time, the government has now approved the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) requirements for unmanned combat aircraft, technically called Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAVs). India has been buying Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) from Israel from the late 1990s for the Army for surveillance (only) in border areas. But the success of US combat drones in Afghanistan in neutralising hostile targets with precision had prompted the Indian Air Force (IAF) to ask for these deadly pilotless attack machines several years back.Reliable sources told India Strategic (www.indiastrategic.in) that India has officially mentioned the requirement for Predator C, built by General Atomics, during the visit of Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar to Washington in December, and that this is likely to be on the US-India bilateral agenda during the official visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi there March-end.He will be paying his first offical visit to the US this time at the invitation of President Barack Obama, and discussions are on between the officials of the two countries to prepare for what should be on the table for appending signatures during the high-level visit.