India and U.S. seal deal for purchase of 31 MQ-9B Sky/Sea Guardian drones

The Indian Ministry of Defense today signed the contract with the U.S. Government for the procurement of 31 MQ-9B Sky/Sea Guardian drones. Another contract was also signed with General Atomics Global India Pvt. Ltd. for performance-based logistics of MQ-9Bs through depot-level maintenance, repair and overhaul in India.

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The Foreign Military Sale (FMS) deal had been approved by Washington in February, and provides for the sale of the following major items:

• 31 Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPAS) MQ-9B Sky/Sea Guardian;
• 161 integrated global positioning and inertial navigation (EGI) systems;
• 35 L3 Rio Grande communications intelligence sensor suites;
• 170 AGM-114R Hellfire missiles;
• 16 M36E9 Hellfire Captive Air Training Missiles (CATM); 16 M36E9 Hellfire Captive Air Training Missiles (CATM);
• 310 GBU-39B/B Laser Guided Small Diameter Bomb (LSDB) bombs;
• 8 GBU-39B/B LSDB Guided Test Vehicles (GTVs) with active fuzes.

Also included are ground control stations; TPE-331-10-GD engines; test stations, communications systems, electronic reconnaissance, training, logistics support, spare parts, laser designation systems, as well as many other related advanced equipment, for an estimated cost of $3.99 billion.

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As part of the agreement, the MQ-9Bs would be assembled in India. India will also see the establishment of a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility for General Atomics-manufactured drones in the country.

The 31 MQ-9B RPAS come in two variants: SkyGuardian and SeaGuardian, and were acquired by the Indian Ministry of Defense for its three main branches. The Indian Navy will receive 15 units of the SeaGuardian version, while the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Indian Army (IA) will each receive eight SkyGuardians.