New Delhi: The Navy is taking two more MQ-9B Sea Guardian High-Altitude Long-Endurance (HALE) Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) on lease.
The Rs 1,943 crore contract with American defence major General Atomics Aeronautical was signed by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on Monday. The lease will last for 30 months.
The del was signed in the presence of A Anbarasu, additional secretary and Director General (Acquisition), Department of Defence, the MoD said in a statement. 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 said.
“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,” the statement added.
The MoD has approved the leasing of HALE RPAS for the Navy in December last year. Currently, the Navy operates two MQ9As on lease, which were procured in 2020 in the thick of border tensions between India and China for a period of one year, and their lease period was subsequently extended, as reported by The Indian Express.
The Navy will now have four units. This expansion will provide a greater operational coverage for the Navy in both the eastern and western sectors. Till now, the limited number of just two HALE RPAS restricted simultaneous coverage of both fronts.
While the lease of the existing RPAS will expire after a certain period, the leases of the two new RPAS will continue until deliveries of the 31 MQ-9B HALE RPAS, being purchased by India, begin. It is further learnt that the new RPAS will have almost the same configuration as the 31 MQ-9Bs which are being procured, as against the existing HALE RPAS.
India and the US inked a deal of around $3.5 billion or over Rs 28,000 crore in 2024 to procure 31 MQ-9B HALE RPAS for the Indian armed forces. Apart from ISR roles, they can also carry out precision strikes on strategic targets in mountains and the maritime domain during long-endurance missions.
A global MRO facility will be set up in India under contract with General Atomics to assemble some of the MQ-9Bs in India to support India’s long-term goals to boost indigenous defence capabilities. A certain percentage of the components for the drones will be sourced indigenously.