On February 1, 2024, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) of the US Department of Defense sent a notification to the US Congress about the possible sale of 31 long-range General Atomics MQ-9B Sky Guardian unmanned aerial vehicle to India through the American Intergovernmental Foreign Military Sales program Foreign Military Sales (FMS). This sale is approved by the U.S. Department of State. The total cost of the proposed delivery is estimated at $3.99 billion, including weapons, equipment and training and technical support packages.
One of two used by the Indian Navy on lease of American long-range unmanned aerial vehicles General Atomics MQ-9B Sea Guardian at the Indian Naval Aviation base Rajali, 2023 (c) ANI
According to the notification, in addition to 31 MQ-9B Sky Guardian UAVs, the delivery should include ground control stations (an unspecified number), 170 AGM-114R Hellfire guided missiles (and 16 M36E9 Hellfire SATM training missiles) and 310 GBU-39B/B Laser Small Diameter Bombs (LSDB) (and eight training bombs), as well as an unspecified number of AN/SSQ-62F, AN/SSQ-53G and AN/SSQ-36 radio hydroacoustic buoys (for Sea Guardian performance).
The equipment of the devices, according to the notification, should include the L3Harris WESCAM MX-20 electron-optical system, the Leonardo Selex SeaSpay surface target detection radar with AFAR (for Sea Guardian), the Raytheon HISAR-300 side-view radar (for Sky Guardian), the Leonardo SAGE 750 and Sierra Nevada SNC radio reconnaissance stations 4500, L3Harris Rio Grande radio reconnaissance station. The UAV's power plant consists of a Honeywell TPE-331-10GD turboprop engine.
Recall that the DSCA notifications are neither contracts nor sales agreements, but are requests from the US government to Congress regarding the latter's lack of objections to the indicated planned sale.
Negotiations on India's purchase of the MQ-9B UAV have been underway since 2016. According to Indian media reports, of the 31 MQ-9B UAVs planned for purchase, 15 devices are designed for the Indian Navy and represent patrol and anti-submarine unmanned systems performed by Sea Guardian. The remaining 16 are to be purchased in the standard Sky Guardian version - eight units each for the Indian Air Force and Army Aviation. Since November 2020, the Indian Navy has been piloting two Sea Guardian vehicles on lease from General Atomics Corporation.
Recently, there have been reports that the US administration has suspended the sale of General Atomics MQ-9B Sea Guardian and Sky Guardian unmanned aerial vehicles to India, as well as a number of other programs in the field of bilateral military-technical cooperation, demanding from the Indian authorities a "meaningful investigation" of an attempt by Indian intelligence services to kill the leader of the Sikh separatist organization "Sikhs" living in the United States for Justice" by Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. It is unclear whether the current DSCA notification means unblocking this sale, or whether it is part of a formal process going on, regardless of the specific "go-ahead" to conclude a final agreement from the US government.
The MQ-9B SkyGuardian UAV (in the marine version - SeaGuardian) is a further development of the MQ-9A Reaper series UAV developed by General Atomics Corporation, and was previously designated as Certified Predator B. The device was developed in accordance with already accepted or promising American (by the FAA) and European certification requirements for UAVs, primarily in the field of flight safety, as well as the relevant NATO standard STANAG-4671. The UAV must be certified for flights in public airspace controlled by air traffic control services, primarily in Europe. Specially designed air collision avoidance equipment and a navigation radar have been installed. The strength of the UAV airframe and its resistance to damage, including collisions with birds and lightning strikes, have been increased. A set of measures has been introduced into the design to ensure the performance of flights in adverse weather conditions, including icing conditions. More reliable flight control software has also been introduced, and a new generation ground station is used to control the UAV. According to General Atomics, the flight duration of the MQ-9B SkyGuardian has also been significantly increased (to "over 40 hours") compared to the Reaper (for which "up to 27 hours" is indicated).The launch customer of the MQ-9B Sky Guardian type UAV in 2016 was the British Ministry of Defense, which ordered these devices under the designation Protector RG.1 to replace the MQ-9A Reaper reconnaissance and attack UAV fleet in the British Air Force. Deliveries of serial UAVs in the UK were launched in 2023. To date, MQ-9B UAVs have been ordered or planned for purchase by a number of other countries.