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HISTORIC: India and the United States signs much anticipated $3.5 billion deal for 31 MQ-9B armed Predator drones

Source : The Hindu

HISTORIC: India and the United States signs much anticipated $3.5 billion deal for 31 MQ-9B armed Predator drones


                                                            


India and the U.S. on Tuesday(October 15, 2024)concluded a $3.5 bn deal for the procurement of 31 MQ-9B armed High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) manufactured by General Atomics through an inter-governmental agreement, via the Foreign Military Sales programme of the U.S.

One contract was signed with the U.S. government for Tri-Service procurement of 31 MQ-9B Sky/Sea Guardian HALE systems, the Defence Ministry said. “Another contract has been signed with General Atomics Global India Pvt Ltd for performance based logistics for these RPAS through Depot Level Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul in India,” the Ministry said on social media X. The contracts were inked in the presence of Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane.

The deal also includes 170 AGM-114R Hellfire missiles; 16 M36E9 Hellfire captive air training missiles; 310 GBU-39B/B laser Small Diameter Bombs (SDB); and 08 GBU-39B/B LSDB guided test vehicles with live fuzes among others.

The deal for 31 MQ-9B UAVs, 15 Sea Guardians for the Indian Navy and 16 Sky Guardians— eight each for the Indian Army and Air Force— was formally approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security last week along with another major deal for the indigenous construction of two Nuclear Attack Submarines (SSN).

These advanced UAVs, once inducted, will significantly augment India’s Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities. For the Navy, it is a great force multiplier in keeping an eye over large swathes of the Indian Ocean Region and will reduce the wear and tear on its P-8I long-range maritime patrol aircraft.

As reported by The Hindu earlier, end-July the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) chaired by chaired Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had approved amendments to the MQ-9B deal related to indigenous content and related aspects.

The MQ-9B is designed to fly over the horizon via satellite for up to 40 hours, depending on the configuration, in all types of weather, and safely integrate into civil airspace, according to its manufacturer. For instance, the Sea Guardian configuration can include a 360-degree surface-search maritime radar, automatic identification system, sonobuoy monitoring system, and sonobuoy dispensers for persistent anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare missions.

Indian Navy has been operating two MQ-9As taken on lease from General Atomics in 2020. Last month, one of them carried out a controlled ditching at sea off Chennai after it encountered a technical failure while on a routine surveillance mission which could not be reset in flight.

With the MQ-9B deal done, another high profile deal pending with the U.S. is local licence manufacture of General Electric (GE) F414 jet engines by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) -Mk1A.

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