The U.S. Government authorized the possible sale to India of up to 31 General Atomics (GA-ASI) MQ-9B Sky Guardian remotely piloted aircraft to India for nearly $4 billion.
The State Department made the decision to approve a potential Foreign Military Sale (FMS) to the Government of India of MQ-9B Remotely Piloted Aircraft and related equipment for an estimated cost of $3.99 billion.
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The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) issued a statement informing of the approval for the sale of the following major items:
- 31 MQ-9B Sky Guardian Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPAS);
- 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);
- 310 GBU-39B/B Laser Guided Small Diameter Bomb (LSDB) bombs;
- 8 GBU-39B/B LSDB Guided Test Vehicles (GTVs) with active fuzes.
The package also includes 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.
The Indian MQ-9Bs will also complement the P-8I Poseidon maritime patrol aircrafts in their exploration, reconnaissance, intelligence and anti-submarine warfare mission over the vast expanses of the Indian Ocean, as they will be equipped with AN/SSQ-62F, AN/SSQ-53G and AN/SSQ-36 sonobuoy systems, as well as Selex SeaSpray Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) maritime surveillance radars.
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The prime contractor will be General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Poway, CA. with whom India will have to negotiate any industrial offset and/or technology transfer agreements.
See also: Canada chooses GA-ASI’s MQ-9B SkyGuardian for long-range surveillance missions
According to Indian sources, the Navy will have 15 of these drones, while the Army and Air Force will receive eight each.