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US firm replaces Indian Navy’s crashed drone

ByRahul Singh, New Delhi
Feb 03, 2025 04:15 AM IST

US firm General Atomics has replaced the MQ-9B SeaGuardian remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) that crashed into the Bay of Bengal on September 18

US firm General Atomics has replaced the MQ-9B SeaGuardian remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) that crashed into the Bay of Bengal on September 18, under the lease agreement it had signed with the Indian Navy, people aware of the matter said on Sunday.

Last year, India signed a deal worth $3.5 billion with the US to acquire 31 MQ-9B Sea/SkyGuardian drones to boost its defence preparedness, primarily with an eye on China. (HT Photo)
Last year, India signed a deal worth $3.5 billion with the US to acquire 31 MQ-9B Sea/SkyGuardian drones to boost its defence preparedness, primarily with an eye on China. (HT Photo)

A power failure caused the crash, and the high-altitude long endurance RPA was written off.

The RPA has been replaced by the original equipment manufacturer and is being used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), the people said, asking not to be named.

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Under the 2020 lease, the navy has been using two RPAs operated by General Atomics to provide assured surveillance of the IOR to the navy. The platforms are based at naval air station Rajali in Tamil Nadu.

The RPAs have helped the navy keep a close watch on the Indian Ocean at a time when it has stepped up surveillance in the region to check China’s ambitions. They have together clocked more than 18,000 hours of flying.

Last year, India signed a deal worth $3.5 billion with the US to acquire 31 MQ-9B Sea/SkyGuardian drones to boost its defence preparedness, primarily with an eye on China. Fifteen drones will be for the navy, and eight each for the army and the Indian Air Force. The deliveries are expected to begin in 2029, HT has learnt.

Also, Adani Defence and Aerospace will supply a Drishti 10 Starliner drone to the Indian Navy in six months, the people said. It was to be delivered earlier but the drone crashed off the Porbandar coast in Gujarat on January 10 while it was undergoing acceptance trials. The medium-altitude long-endurance drone is already in service with the navy --- it inducted one last year. The navy and the army had earlier ordered two such drones each by invoking emergency financial powers to boost their ISR capabilities. Each system costs around 145 crore.

The Drishti 10 Starliner has been built by Adani Defence and Aerospace at its Hyderabad facility with technology transfer from Israeli defence firm Elbit Systems. The drone is the first major defence platform to be delivered to the Indian military by Adani, and a variant of Elbit Systems’ Hermes 900 Starliner drone.

The all-weather Drishti 10 Starliner is 70% indigenous, has an endurance of 36 hours and can carry a payload of 450 kg. The drone, which has three hard points, can be weaponised too.

The planned second India-made carrier, or IAC-2 (indigenous aircraft carrier-2), which figures in the navy’s modernisation plan will be a replacement for INS Vikramaditya, the people said, clarifying that the service will not be operating three carriers simultaneously.

The navy currently operates two aircraft carriers --- INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant, the former was bought second hand from Russia, while the latter was built in Kochi. The local warship-building ecosystem is ready to build the IAC-2, the people added.

The 45,000-tonne INS Vikrant was built at Cochin Shipyard at a cost of 20,000 crore. Only the US, the UK, Russia, France and China have the capability to build aircraft carriers. It was commissioned into the navy in September 2022, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

India is all set to sign two separate deals with France for 26 new Rafale-M fighter jets for INS Vikrant, and three more Scorpene-class submarines to sharpen the navy’s combat capabilities.

The deal for the Rafale-M twin-engine deck-based fighters, built for sustained combat operations at sea, is estimated to be worth around 50,000 crore. The Rafale-M is being imported as an interim measure to meet the navy’s requirements until India develops its own twin-engine deck-based fighter (TEDBF). The first prototype of TEDBF could make its maiden flight by 2026 and be ready for production by 2031.

The additional Scorpene-class submarines, to be built at Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) in Mumbai, will strengthen the country’s maritime posture in the IOR where the challenges include China’s carefully calculated power play for influence and defending the rules-based international order.

MDL has already built six Kalvari-class (Scorpene) diesel-electric attack submarines with technology transfer from the French firm, Naval Group, under a 23,562-crore programme called Project 75 (P-75).

Also, MDL and German yard thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (tkMS) have emerged as the frontrunner for a 70,000-crore project (P-75I) to build six advanced submarines in India to sharpen the navy’s underwater capabilities, edging out their only competitor the Larsen & Toubro-Navantia combine that did meet the navy’s requirements.

These advanced submarines, a variant of HDW Class 214 vessels, will come with air independent propulsion (AIP) systems. AIP significantly increases a submarine’s underwater endurance and reduces the risk of detection.

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