Until a few years ago, India relied largely on human patrols to monitor the disputed border. But that was a different, less tense era of relations between neighbors. A deadly confrontation in 2020 between their security forces shocked New Delhi and strained relations, forcing both sides to increase deployment of troops, weapons and surveillance equipment along the border.
India is planning to buy advanced MQ-9B drones in a transaction worth around $3 billion. The deal was announced by the US and India in Washington on Thursday during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first state visit to the US.
According to Indian officials, as part of the deal, India is expected to get around 30 MQ-9B high-altitude drones, which will be a mix of SeaGuardian and SkyGuardian. Some of them will be assembled and armed in India. About half of them are expected to go to the Indian Navy, while the rest will be used for surveillance by the Indian Army and Air Force, officials said.
The purchases reflect India’s growing efforts to keep a close watch on the border, where it faces a formidable and well-equipped adversary. Over the decades, China has developed a far superior infrastructure on its side, which has greatly benefited its soldiers – and that construction continues.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal ahead of the visit, Modi described defense cooperation as a key pillar of the partnership, saying the countries have reached an unprecedented level of trust.
Last week, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said he thought the state visit would be a turning point in relations between New Delhi and Washington, adding that the China challenge is one of the key drivers of the growing rapprochement.
Although India is not a security ally of the US, there is a deep distrust of Beijing between the two. This means greater cooperation between them, including intelligence sharing, arms sales and joint production of weapons.
There was also an agreement between the US and India to make General Electric’s jet-fighter engines in India. The deal will give New Delhi highly sensitive military technology to power the next generation of jet fighters – the same engine used in the US F/A-18 fighter jet.
New Delhi has ignored its decades-old warning to the US, the root cause of which was Washington’s support for its rival Pakistan. It has more deeply embraced the Quad, a grouping of Japan, Australia and the US, which cooperates on security and many other issues.
“We can use a word from European history – Entente” to describe the relationship between the US and India, said Manoj Joshi, a Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi-based think tank. “It suggests an informality rather than a formal alliance.”
New Delhi’s tense rivalry with China stems from a dispute between the two countries over the 2,000-mile border, known as the Line of Actual Control. It has also spread to other areas of the relationship, with New Delhi banning dozens of Chinese mobile apps, including TikTok, following the 2020 clash. Both the countries had also expelled each other’s journalists recently.
Indian security officials said Beijing has in recent years taken a more aggressive approach to the decades-old territorial dispute and is trying to gradually encroach on land that India claims. As a result, New Delhi faces the daunting challenge of closely monitoring the border to avoid what are seen as covert, incremental moves by China, officials said.
This is where drones come into play. Indian security officials said New Delhi operates dozens of Indian and Israeli-made drones, many of them equipped with advanced sensors and cameras, and is also using satellite imagery to track Chinese activities in border areas. Officials said the device captures information about Chinese military and weapons deployment, artillery positions and new border infrastructure.
They are particularly watching that Chinese troops are entering the territory that India considers its own and establishing its presence there by building military cantonments or roads. According to Indian security officials and experts, the Chinese military has in recent years tried to capture disputed areas and cut off India’s ability to patrol the border area where it previously had access.
“We are now in a position to anticipate the moves of the People’s Liberation Army and prepare our forces to thwart any misadventure,” said General MM Naravane, who retired as India’s army chief last year. -Weather monitoring for areas of interest using all our instruments.”
This is no easy task. The long range runs from the remote mountainous region of Ladakh to the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Much of the border is disputed, creating areas of overlapping claims.
For example, research published last year by the Washington DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies shows that China is expanding infrastructure. For example, a new Chinese bridge is being built over a part of Pangong Tso Lake in eastern Ladakh. The report states that this bridge will greatly speed up the movement of the Chinese army on both sides of the lake.
Indian officials say that China also uses drones extensively to keep an eye on the border. Indian officials said months after the 2020 confrontation between Chinese and Indian security forces at Pangong Tso Lake, both sides agreed to pull back troops – an exercise they monitored via drones.
India’s fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles includes 125 Israeli-made Searcher Mark-II drones, which can fly for long periods of time at an altitude of about 18,500 feet, and 90 Heron drones, also made in Israel.
Given the growing importance of such systems, the country’s military has in recent months bought more drones, cameras and sensors to deploy at key points of friction. For example, a recent order is for 850 units of what are known as Nano drones, whose small size allows for easy transport and deployment in large numbers.
According to Indian officials, in addition to drones, India also uses Boeing’s P-8I patrol aircraft and has increased fighter jet flights along the border.
A former senior Indian Navy officer said, “With a mix of US-made P-81s, Romeo helicopters and now Predator drones, our killchain will be much stronger against adversaries.”
A military-intelligence official said the use of drones has reduced the potential for strategic surprise from China. “Drone technology has proven to be a force multiplier in military operations around the world,” the official said. “The significant increase in incidents at the borders, in our case, has made this necessary.”
The US is collaborating more closely with India in other ways. Last year, Indian and US troops participated in a high-altitude military exercise in northern Uttarakhand state, about 60 miles from the India-China border. The countries have increased maritime cooperation as China has increased its presence in the Indian Ocean through its submarine deployment and port investments.
Some security experts warn that the relationship has some limits. They say that despite its rivalry with Beijing, India is unlikely to join the US in a military confrontation with China over Taiwan.
India and the US also disagree over Russia, a close ally of New Delhi. Although India is buying more military equipment from the US, Moscow remains the largest supplier of arms, including military aircraft, helicopters and the S-400 missile-defense system.
Nevertheless, Washington sees New Delhi as part of a web of partnerships in the Indo-Pacific, designed to project its might and push back against Chinese actions.
Ashok Malik, partner at strategic advisory firm The Asia Group, says that China is not just a military problem for India. Its economic weight, stranglehold on global supply chains, technology accretion and revisionist strategic posture pose challenges on many fronts.
“There is a need to look at each of these parameters to balance China,” he added. “That’s where the multi-sectoral partnership with the US becomes important.”