{"id":161972,"date":"2024-02-10T15:38:58","date_gmt":"2024-02-10T10:08:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/?p=161972"},"modified":"2024-02-10T15:38:59","modified_gmt":"2024-02-10T10:08:59","slug":"india-likely-to-sign-deal-with-us-for-31-mq-9b-drones-by-feb-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/india-likely-to-sign-deal-with-us-for-31-mq-9b-drones-by-feb-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"India likely to sign deal with US for 31 MQ-9B drones by Feb 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>India<\/strong>&nbsp;is in the process of finalizing a significant defense deal with the&nbsp;<strong>United States.<\/strong>&nbsp;According to reliable sources, the agreement involves the purchase of&nbsp;<strong>31 MQ-9B Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)<\/strong>&nbsp;from&nbsp;<strong>General Atomics (GA).<\/strong>&nbsp;This deal is expected to enhance India\u2019s military capabilities significantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key Points:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Agreement Details<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>India is set to acquire&nbsp;<strong>31 MQ-9B UAVs from GA,<\/strong>&nbsp;with deliveries starting from&nbsp;<strong>February 2027,<\/strong>&nbsp;three years after the contract\u2019s signing.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The deal\u2019s estimated cost is<strong>&nbsp;$3,072 million,<\/strong>&nbsp;and it follows the U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Division Among Forces<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The<strong>&nbsp;31 drones<\/strong>&nbsp;are allocated for different branches of the Indian military:&nbsp;<strong>15 for the Indian Navy<\/strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>8<\/strong>&nbsp;each for the<strong>&nbsp;Indian Army and Air Force.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Approval Process<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In June, the Ministry of Defence approved the acquisition, sending a&nbsp;<strong>Letter of Request (LoR)<\/strong>&nbsp;to the&nbsp;<strong>U.S. government.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The U.S. will respond with a&nbsp;<strong>Letter of Offer and Acceptance (LOA),<\/strong>&nbsp;which will detail the equipment and terms of procurement under the&nbsp;<strong>Foreign Military Sales (FMS)<\/strong>&nbsp;program.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Facility in India<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>General Atomics plans to establish a Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) facility in India.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>While the exact location is not confirmed, Bengaluru is a likely choice.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Final Approval Steps<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The&nbsp;<strong>U.S. Congress<\/strong>&nbsp;will be notified about the sale, a standard procedure.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The deal will then need approval from India\u2019s Cabinet Committee on Security before becoming official.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MQ-9B Drone Capabilities<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>These drones, in&nbsp;<strong>Sky Guardian<\/strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>Sea Guardian<\/strong>&nbsp;variants, offer enhanced&nbsp;<strong>Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR)<\/strong>&nbsp;capabilities for the&nbsp;<strong>Indian armed forces.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>They can fly at long ranges, communicate via satellite for up to&nbsp;<strong>40 hours,<\/strong>&nbsp;operate in diverse weather conditions, and safely integrate into civil airspace.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>India&nbsp;is in the process of finalizing a significant defense deal with the&nbsp;United States.&nbsp;According to reliable sources, the agreement involves the purchase of&nbsp;31 MQ-9B Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)&nbsp;from&nbsp;General Atomics (GA).&nbsp;This deal is expected to enhance India\u2019s military capabilities significantly. Key Points: Agreement Details Division Among Forces Approval Process Facility in India Final Approval Steps MQ-9B Drone [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":161973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5227],"tags":[1475,69],"class_list":["post-161972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs-october-2023-current-affairs","tag-daily-current-affairs","tag-defence-current-affairs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/419"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161972"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161974,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161972\/revisions\/161974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}