Navy inducts two Sea Guardian drones on lease from U.S.
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The Indian Navy has inducted two MQ-9B Sea Guardian unarmed drones procured from the U.S. on lease, two defence sources stated on Wednesday.
“The drones are on lease for one year. All planning, execution and operations will be with the Indian Navy. The Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) will play a support role for maintenance as laid down in the agreement,” one defence supply stated. The drones arrived in India mid-November.
The lately launched Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020 has launched an choice for leasing navy platforms.
As half its drive restructuring to offset budgetary constraints, the Navy has been seeking to induct extra unmanned options, each aerial and underwater. As a part of this, the requirement of further P-8I maritime patrol plane has been minimize down from 10 to 6 and was to be offset by procurement of lengthy endurance drones.
UAV procurement
A tri-service proposal to acquire 10 Unmanned Aerial automobiles (UAV) for every Service from the U.S., together with armed drones has been within the pipeline for someday however has been delayed as a result of budgetary issues.
Also learn: Services finalising necessities for armed drones from the U.S.
Last 12 months, the Navy requested General Atomics for particulars of the Sea Guardian, following which firm officers made detailed displays on its capabilities.
The Guardian, which is the maritime variant of the Predator MQ-9 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), has a most endurance of 40 hours and a most flying altitude of 40,000 ft. It has a 3600 maritime surveillance radar and an non-obligatory multimode maritime floor search radar.
According to the corporate’s information sheet, the drone can “perform over-the-horizon long-endurance, medium-altitude Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions.”
At the two+2 dialogue with the U.S. final month, India signed the final foundational settlement Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-Spatial Cooperation (BECA), which simplifies such high- know-how cooperation.
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