India on Tuesday signed a contract with the US for the procurement of 31 MQ-9B High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) drones from General Atomics at a cost nearly $4 billion to scale up the surveillance and operational capabilities of the armed forces against aggressive China and hostile Pakistan.

A spokesperson of Ministry of Defence on Tuesday confirmed signing of the contract for the drones or Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) here between the two governments. “Another contract has been signed with General Atomics Global India Pvt Ltd for Performance Based Logistics for these RPAS through Depot Level Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul in India,” the MoD spokesperson tweeted.

Though the MoD officially did not share the cost of the deal, officials said it will cost nearly $4 billion for procuring the 31 Sky and Sea Guardian drones. Of that, Navy will get 15 and Army and Air Force will share 8 each.

The talks for procurement of the drones began in 2018 and was finalised just weeks ahead of the US presidential elections. Last week, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cleared the procurement of the MQ-9B RPAS to facilitate inking of the deal.

The contracts were signed in the presence of Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane and Vivek Lall, the Chief Executive of General Atomics Global Corporation.

Large endurance

The HALE RPAS, which will have 30 per cent indigenous content, are capable of remaining airborne for over 35 hours and can carry four Hellfire missiles and around 450 kg of bombs.

On the eve of inking of the drone deal, Chief of Naval Staff Chief Admiral Dinesh Kumar Tripathi said MQ-9Bs are very capable platforms with large endurance and therefore they will help the Navy tremendously in keeping area of interest and area of responsibility under surveillance.

Indian Navy is already using one MQ-9B drone for keeping an eye in the Indo Pacific region.

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