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.
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.
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.
