Saturday, August 6, 2011

After the P-8, India wants to unmanned systems for maritime surveillance



During Aero India 2011, we had the privilege to have a discussion with Admiral (Retired) U.S. Navy (USN) Walter Doran, who is currently the president of Raytheon Asia. Briefly touched upon in discussing the emerging strategic partnership between the Indian Navy (IN) with the United States Navy (USN) in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and some future scenarios.

In fact, cooperation between various services, close cooperation and synergy between the IN and USN have progressed to the extent that such a kind of cooperation has the potential to transform India into one of the closest allies of the United States on a par with Britain Britain, Israel and Japan, and, implicitly, put it as a privileged strategic partner in Asia Pacific.

While surveillance systems in the state of art are simultaneously entering service in the IN and USN in the form of MMA (Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft) Boeing P-8 Poseidon and, potentially, the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye (AEW & C ), there was another action of the most significant strategic point of view. Is that Northrop Grumman received and responded to a Request for Information (RFI) of the Indian Ministry of Defense for Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (MCA), an unmanned aerial system (UAS) for the IN (after have obtained necessary clearances from the U.S. Government).

The BAMS UAS MQ-4C (formerly known as the RQ-4N) is a modified version for recognition of the maritime RQ-4 Global Hawk, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) for High Altitude and Long Term (HALE), already proven in combat.

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