India Reconsidering $6 Billion Contract for Elite U.S. Drones After Poor Performance Against Iranian Defences

India’s armed forces are reportedly reconsidering plans to acquire Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk surveillance drones from the United States, after the downing of one of the costly aircraft by Iranian Air Defences on June 19th. The Global Hawk is currently one of the most costly unmanned aircraft in the world, valued at over $222 million per aircraft, and was designed for long range high altitude surveillance flights. India was reportedly set to acquire 30 of the. Drones under a $6 billion contract, although their survivability against Chinese and Pakistani air defences has been brought to serious question following its demonstrated vulnerability against Iranian systems. Iran’s 3rd of Khordad air defence system reportedly succeeded in downing the RQ-4 with a single surface to air missile, and this indigenous Iranian platform is considered less sophisticated than the Chinese HQ-16 system currently deployed by Pakistan or the longer ranged Chinese HQ-9B Pakistan is currently considering acquiring.

It may have been taken into consideration that export variants of major U.S. weapons systems are generally considerably less survivable than their American operated counterparts due to the need to protect sensitive technologies, meaning the RQ-4 in Indian hands would if anything be more vulnerable than those deployed by the U.S. Air Force. With even Pakistan’s somewhat modest air defence network able to seriously impede the MQ-4's operations,  the platform's ability to effectively patrol India’s disputed 3500km border with China remain very questionable. China's border regions are protected by some of the most advanced air defence systems in the world, not to mention a large fleet of air superiority fighters, would almost certainly lead to heavy losses very quickly in the event of war. India notably previously deployed MiG-25R Foxbat jets from the Soviet. Union, which though cheaper were over four times as fast as the MQ-4 and capable of operating at far higher altitudes in a surveillance role. These were retired after several successful flights over Pakistani airspace, and without a replacement India’s non-satellite reconnaissance capabilities have since been somewhat lacking.