Top-notch drone goes down after technical failure off Chennai just ahead of mega deal with the US

NEW DELHI: A top-notch MQ-9B Sea Guardian drone, an unarmed version leased by the Navy from US firm General Atomics, had to be ditched into the sea off Chennai after it encountered a technical failure on a routine surveillance mission in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) on Wednesday afternoon.

The “controlled ditching” of the high-altitude, long-endurance remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) comes just when India is getting set to ink the mega $3.9 billion (over Rs 33,500 crore) deal for 31 weaponized `hunter-killer’ variants of the drone with the US next month, as was earlier reported by TOI.

The fighter-sized Sea Guardian operating from naval air base INS Rajali at Arakkonam, near Chennai, encountered the technical failure at about 2 pm. “There is a procedure to do a technical reset of the RPA in flight. It was tried but did not work. It was then navigated to a safe area over the sea and a controlled ditching was carried out,” an officer said.

The Navy has sought a detailed report from General Atomics since the company was “operating and maintaining” the two leased Sea Guardians, which are variants of the famous Predator or Reaper drones. India had first got the two RPAs on lease from General Atomics in Sept 2020 and has since extended the lease several times.

The two RPAs have flown over 12,000 hours of long-range strategic ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) missions in the IOR, with the Navy deciding their tasking and getting all the “feeds” from them. “The drones, along with other assets, have enabled the Navy to keep a close track of Chinese warships and spy vessels operating in the IOR,” another officer said.

India has extensively deployed the drones for ISR missions even along the 3,488-km Line of Actual Control with China amid the ongoing military confrontation in eastern Ladakh. “The imagery provided by the drones about the activities of the People’s Liberation Army across the LAC convinced national security planners of their operational utility,” he added.

The Predators or Reapers do have a proven track record in high-value precision bombings in Afghanistan and other conflicts, though some critics say the drones have largely operated in “uncontested air space” without facing a hostile air force or advanced surface-to-air missile systems.

In the proposed govt-to-govt deal with the US, 15 Sea Guardians are earmarked for Navy and 8 Sky Guardians each for Army and IAF, in the backdrop of both China and Pakistan steadily boosting their fleets of armed drones.

Designed to fly for almost 40 hours at altitudes over 40,000-feet, the 31 MQ-9B drones will come with 170 Hellfire missiles, 310 GBU-39B precision-guided glide bombs, navigation systems, sensor suites and mobile ground control systems, among other associated equipment.

Under the deal, General Atomics will assemble the 31 drones in India, while also making an investment, sourcing almost 35% of the components from Indian companies and setting up an MRO (maintenance, repair, overhaul) facility here.

India also plans to equip the drones with indigenous weapons, including the naval short-range anti-ship missiles (NASM-SR) being developed by DRDO, in the future, as was reported by TOI.

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