The US on Thursday approved the sale of 31 MQ-9B armed drones to India at an estimated cost of USD 3.99 billion, an American defence agency announced here. The proposed mega drone deal was announced during the historic State Visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi here in June 2023.
US Approves Sale Of 31 Predator Drones To Bharat
The US on Thursday approved the sale of 31 MQ-9B armed drones to India at an estimated cost of USD 3.99 billion, an American defence agency announced here. The proposed mega drone deal was announced during the historic State Visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi here in June 2023. Under the deal, India will get 31 High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) UAVs, of which the Navy will get 15 Sea Guardian drones, while the Army and the Indian Air Force will get eight each of the land version – Sky Guardian.
It said that the GOI has requested to buy 31 MQ-9B Sky Guardian aircraft, 161 Embedded Global Positioning & Inertial Navigation Systems, 35 L3 Rio Grande Communications Intelligence Sensor Suites, 170 AGM-114R Hellfire missiles, 16 M36E9 Hellfire Captive Air Training Missiles, 310 GBU-39B/B Laser Small Diameter Bombs, and 8 GBU-39B/B LSDB Guided Test Vehicles with live fuzes.
The other equipment included ground control stations, missile launchers, tactical training rounds, high frequency radios, and radars.
