Indian Navy keen to procure MQ-4C Triton UAS from the United States

Source : Indian Defence Updates (IDU)

Northrop Grumman made MQ-4C Triton High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) Unmanned Aircraft System

The Financial Express has reported that the Indian Navy is in talks with the US firm Northrop Grumman systems corporation to acquire the MQ-4C Triton High-Altitude Long-Endurance (HALE) Unmanned Aircraft System that costs over $120 million dollars per unit.

The Indian Navy currently operates P8I Anti-Submarine Aircraft, MH-60 Romeo Anti-Submarine Helicopters and MQ-9 Sea Guardian UAVs and the procurement of MQ-4C Triton will support a wide range of missions including maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance patrol, signals intelligence, search and rescue and communications relay.

The MQ-4C has an endurance of 30 hours and has an operational range of 15,000 kilometers and it can conduct survey over 1 lakh square kilometers of terrain in one day.