NEW DELHI: The US has strongly pitched for becoming India’s “premier defence partner” by providing it with the most advanced weapon systems like armed drones that are “feared” across the globe, ahead of the inking of two more military helicopter deals worth $3 billion on Tuesday, which will take the total value of Indian arms deals bagged by Washington since 2007 over the $20 billion mark.“I’m pleased to announce that tomorrow, our representatives will sign defence deals worth over $3 billion to sell the absolute, finest state-of-the-art military helicopters and other equipment to the Indian armed forces,” President Donald Trump said at the ‘Namaste Trump’ event in Ahmedabad on Monday.TOI was the first to report that the two deals to acquire 24 MH-60 ‘Romeo’ naval multi-mission helicopters for Rs 15,157 crore ($2.12 billion) and six additional AH-64E Apache attack choppers for Rs 5,691 crore ($796 million) from the US had been cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Security led by PM Narendra Modi The first six MH-60R helicopters, equipped with multi-mode radars and night-vision capabilities as well as Hellfire missiles, MK-54 torpedoes and precision-kill rockets for potent anti-submarine warfare, will be delivered in a year. The rest 18 will come in the next four years to plug the critical operational deficiency of such choppers on board Indian warships when Chinese submarines are regularly prowling in the Indian Ocean Region.The six Apaches, armed with Stinger air-to-air missiles, Hellfire Longbow air-to-ground missiles, guns and rockets, in turn, will be delivered in three-and-a-half years. These six Apaches are meant for the Army, and will follow 22 such helicopters already inducted by IAF under a Rs 13,952 crore deal inked with the US in September 2015.“I believe the US should be India’s premier defence partner and that is the way it is working out. Together, we will defend our sovereignty, security and protect a free and open Indo-Pacific region for our children and for many, many generations to come,” Trump said.The US president said his country looked forward to providing India with “some of the best and most feared military equipment” on the planet. “We make the greatest weapons ever made. Airplanes, missiles, rockets, ships. We make the best and we’re dealing now with India. This includes advanced air-defence systems and armed and unarmed aerial vehicles,” he said.The reference to armed drones comes at a time when India is looking to acquire 30 weaponised Sea Guardian or Predator-B armed drones, with advanced ground control stations, launch and recovery elements, air-to-ground missiles, smart bombs and the like, from the US, as was earlier reported by TOI.The proposed deals in the pipeline include Sea Guardian armed drones (over $2.5 billion), six more P-8I long-range maritime patrol aircraft ($1.8 billion), the National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System-II for the missile shield over Delhi ($1.8 billion) and 13 big MK-45 naval gun systems for warships ($1.02 billion).Trump, on his part, said, “As two great countries, both of us understand that when leaders put interests of their citizens first, we forge strong and fair partnerships to build a more prosperous world. Just months ago, this critical partnership took a major step forward when the US military and your brave Indian armed forces conducted the first-ever land, air and sea military exercises between our two countries … It was something to behold. We called it Tiger Triumph.”