India Signs Rs 1,900-Crore Deal To Lease 2 MQ-9B Sea Guardian Drones

By Deepak Arora

NEW DELHI, Aug 17: The Ministry of Defence has signed a contract with has signed a contract with US defence major General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) for the leasing of two MQ-9B Sea Guardian High-Altitude Long-Endurance (HALE) Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) for the Indian Navy for a period of 30 months.

The contract is valued at approximately Rs 1,943 crore. It was signed in the presence of Additional Secretary and Director General (Acquisition), Department of Defence, A. Anbarasu, at Kartavya Bhawan-2 here on Monday.

The MQ-9B Sea Guardian HALE RPAS, equipped with advanced systems, state-of-the-art sensors and sophisticated payloads, will significantly enhance the Indian Navy’s Maritime Domain Awareness capabilities. It can remain airborne for over 30 hours, operate at altitudes above 40,000 feet and cover vast maritime and land areas.

The systems will provide persistent Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance coverage over vast areas of the maritime domain, strengthening India’s ability to monitor and respond to developments across the Indian Ocean Region.

India has already signed a $3 billion deal to procure 31 MQ-9B drones from General Atomics for tri-service use. Under the deal signed during Joe Biden's administration, the navy will get 15 MQ-9B SeaGuardian drones, and the army and the air force will get eight each of the land attack and reconnaissance versions called SkyGuardian.

India has also signed another contract with General Atomics for performance-based logistics for these RPAS through depot-level maintenance, repair, and overhaul in India.