Two projects are going forward separately, with one of them being a tri-services project and the other is steered by the Indian Navy.
As military relations between India and the United States continue to grow, the Indian defence forces are inching closer towards the acquisition of American defence equipment worth more than $7.5 billion from the US, according to a report by news agency ANI.
The equipment includes Sea Guardian armed drones and naval spy planes, among others.
Two projects are going forward separately, with one of them being a tri-services project and the other is steered by the Indian Navy.
"All the three services are collating their requirement for the Sea Guardian armed drones which will give us a strong capability in terms of high altitude long endurance unmanned aerial vehicles and also enhance our capabilities to carry out surveillance," government sources told ANI.
The sources also said that the collation would take a few months' time as some of the requirements of the three services would be different from each other. A Letter of Request is likely to be issued to the US for the government-to-government deal by the February-March time frame, the source added.
Earlier, only the Navy seemed to be interested in the procurement but now all the three services are showing interest in the project, the sources said.
In June this year, the US government had approved the sale of armed drones to India and offered it to be equipped with required missiles and other systems.
Once the Letter of Request is sent to the US government for the deal, it would send the Letter of Acceptance that will mention the terms and conditions for the project.
Another key deal is the procurement of ten P-8I anti-submarine warfare and long-range surveillance planes, which would be adding to the existing fleet of 12 such aircrafts in the Indian Navy.
The expected cost of the P-8I planes is around US $3 billion. The acquisition would follow the same FMS path after it gets approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security.
Both countries are also in talks for the NASAMS air defence system for providing protection to the national capital region.
(with inputs from ANI)
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