India to Orders Israeli UAVs Armed with Missiles

Sources close to the Indian defense ministry in New Delhi disclosed Wednesday, March 31, that a military purchasing mission was in Israel recently to expedite the purchase of a large number of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) armed with missiles, for deployment on its front lines against Pakistan.Indian sources did not disclose the size of the order placed with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) - running to hundreds of millions of dollars - but they made no secret of their intention to build up their fleet of reconnaissance and killer drones for a possible duel against US-armed Predators in the hands of Pakistani forces. New Delhi made its order urgent after learning that Washington may deliver drones to Islamabad much sooner than Indian intelligence had foreseen. The visiting Indian delegation also discussed the possible introduction of Israeli Harop `killer' UAVs to the Indian Air Force from 2011. India is going half-and-half with Israel in the costs of developing and production of the innovative helicopter..........................source

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