India to buy US Predator drones

[sandeep]

1 hour ago, BacktoCricaddict said:

This is why political discussions are so interesting, yet pointless. No one on this board nor elsewhere on the interwebs knows jackshyte, is speculating and speaking out of their rear-ends, with each one convinced that they know best even though they have no evidence to back their claims. The only thing we know is that India would be better off if they made their own high-quality defense equipment. Rest is just banter. The only people who know the truth of why these things were purchased are top GoI officials.

 

This is why I love science. We hypothesize. We do experiments. We publish. Others repeat. Our results are supported or not supported by others. If supported, more people repeat under other conditions. We use statistical tools to build the case. When there is a strong body of evidence in one direction or another, we say that "this is most likely the truth." Until someone disproves it.

Let's not overglorify science though, there's a lot of hypotheses and "studies" that get funded, published, even become accepted as conventional wisdom before being junked.  Yes, that's part of the "scientific process", but you know what I mean ;P.

 

 

[sandeep]

5 hours ago, Lone Wolf said:

Beyond surveillance & recon purposes these drones serve no purpose to India with neighbours like Pak China. 

 

Another deal to keep Uncle Sam Happy like S400 for Ruskies.  Cost of a balancing act. 

Though Navy has a much better use for it as drones are cheaper to operate. 

S400 and its equivalent systems are critical requirements against Pak and China.  So are long-range drones for patrolling in IOR.  You seem to be under the impression that you can fulfill requirements with a warehouse filled with Mavics.  Doesn't quite work like that.

[Lone Wolf]

1 minute ago, sandeep said:

not at all.  Having long-range capacity drones is a piece of the required toolkit for Maritime surveillance.  And we don't have any other options, locally made or otherwise. I think there's a French company coming out with a competitor for this, but it just debuted, so don't know about operational reliability etc.  

 

I'm even ok with overpaying the US for these drones, because the reality is that this is all part of the growing defense relationship.  I mean, when the CCP's armed wing tried a repeat of Galwan near Arunachal Pradesh recently, it was US intel that enabled Indian army to pre-empt the PLA.  As long as the relationship is trending in the right direction, and India starts to get genuine modernization and capacity building assistance from the US, its ok to throw a few billions their way on deals like this.  Its not like the Russkies weren't ripping us off in our supply deals with them anyway.  

US intel on Indo China border is worth gold dust...  Our surveillance & satellite capability is so bad that we need all the help we can get.  They helped us with their troop movements & locations with minute details.  Even CCP & PLA got annoyed with all this. 

Deal is totally fine even if its overpriced or isn't that attractive. 

[BacktoCricaddict]

19 minutes ago, sandeep said:

Let's not overglorify science though, there's a lot of hypotheses and "studies" that get funded, published, even become accepted as conventional wisdom before being junked.  Yes, that's part of the "scientific process", but you know what I mean ;P.

 

 

 

 

Oh ... for sure. But the problem is that university marketing departments who want to attract students, plus the media get carried away with hypotheses and magnify them as fact before it can run its course through the scientific process. I call it "single-study fallacy."  

 

A real scientist is never convinced about their own results and will always hedge with "The current evidence in animal studies indicates that ...",  "It is most likely that ..." etc.

 

Next thing you know, media goes "Univ of xx scientist may have found the root cause of schizophrenia ..."  Scientist mumbles "Ummm .. I never said that .... but whatever." 

 

The lack of reproducibility problem is especially huge in nutritional science and psychology, because those researchers rely on subject-recall surveys.  People forget, misremember or lie on these but there is no way to tell.  It is less prevalent in areas where one can make objective lab measurements.

 

 

[Khota]

I think it is a good decision by the government. First looking at Ukraine war it is clear US stuff works. Russian stuff is poor. Secondly just recently in Arunachal Pardesh an equally bad incident like Galan happened and thanks to US help the roles were reversed and Chinese had to retreat.

If there is war with China, only US will come to India's defense. Not Russia.