India cancels deal for 400 defence drones, the reason is…

New Delhi: In a essential construction in procuring defence weapons, the Defence Ministry of India has cancelled three main contracts for the procurement of 400 logistics drones. The contracts were rejected on account of security considerations as Chinese electronic parts were former within the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). These parts posed potential cybersecurity dangers to Indian armed forces operations.

Security Considerations

As per a file by Cases Now citing defence sources, the Indian Military determined to cancel the contracts to safeguard national cybersecurity. The drones were supposed to reduction logistics operations alongside the Line of Exact Maintain an eye fixed on (LAC). The total price of the contracts became approximately Rs 230 crore. The contracts included 200 mid-altitude, 100 heavy-weight, and 100 lightweight drones.

Threat of Knowledge Breach

Defence consultants showed self-discipline that Chinese-made parts can presumably luxuriate in virus, bug or “backdoors that can lead to records leaks of sensitive defence records. “Some Indian companies were also the expend of Chinese parts, which made the hiss a lot extra relating,” The Timesnow quoted a defence expert as announcing.

Extra Vigilance After 2020 India-China Border Conflict

The Indian Military is paying further consideration to the borders and also closely monitoring the utilization of Chinese parts in defence equipment after the India-China border conflict in April 2020 in jap Ladakh, where squaddies of both the sides misplaced their lives.

Significantly, the IAF has already handled operational failures in some drone missions.

Stricter Procurement Suggestions And Level of curiosity On Indigenous Drone Tech

The Military has established strict verification and certification procedures for getting drones. An decent acknowledged, “Comprehensive inspections will be performed to ascertain that the drones acquired attain not luxuriate in any Chinese parts or hidden malicious tool.” India is now specializing within the increase and acquisition of domestically produced drones, with the armed forces investing in mini, micro, armed swarm drones, in addition to to prolonged-persistence medium-altitude drones.

Nonetheless, canceling the contract is seen as a truly crucial pass by India against strengthening its indigenous functionality and cutting back dependency on international technology.