MQ 9B Drone: Eyes from sea to sky, MQ-9B armed drone deals signed between India and America

New Delhi: India and America signed a deal for 31 MQ-9B armed drones on Tuesday. This deal is worth about 3.5 billion dollars. The MQ-9B is a high altitude log endurance armed unmanned aerial vehicle. That means it can stay in the air for a long time and work at high altitude and it is operated remotely.

Navy will also benefit

The deal also includes 170 AGM-114R Hellfire missiles, 16 M36E9 Hellfire captive air training missiles, 310 GBU-39B/B Laser Small Diameter Bomb (SDB), and 08 GBU-39B/B LSDB Guided Test Vehicles along with drones. The 31 MQ-9B drones include 15 Sea Guardians for the Indian Navy and eight Sky Guardians each for the Indian Army and Air Force. This deal was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security only last week.

India’s strength will increase

These advanced UAVs will enhance India’s Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities. Surveillance in the Indian Ocean Region will be strengthened if the Navy gets 15 Sea Guardians. The responsibility of the Indian Ocean Region rests with the Navy. Keeping an eye on the Indian Ocean Region, which is almost three times the size of India, is a challenging task. Because from the East Coast it is about 5000 kilometers further than the West Coast.
Complete monitoring has to be done up to about 8000 kilometers ahead.

Can fly continuously for 40 hours

This deal also includes building a global maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility in India. American company General Atomics will build this facility in India. Which will also help India’s indigenous industry to move forward. According to General Atomics, the MQ-9B drone will provide 80 percent of the capability of large manned aircraft at 20 percent of the cost per hour. This drone can fly continuously for 40 hours and can work at full capacity even in all weather conditions.

Indian Navy is using MQ-9A i.e. Predator since 2020. These have been taken on lease. Just last month, a Predator drone had to make an emergency landing due to a technical failure in the sea off the coast of Chennai.