India signed a contract with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) for the leasing of two MQ-9B SeaGuardian High-Altitude Long-Endurance (HALE) Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) for the Indian Navy for a period of 30 months.
The contract is worth ₹1,943 crore ($200 million) and was signed on August 17.
Indian Navy currently utilizes two leased MQ-9Bs in a Contractor owned Contractor Operated (COCO) model deal which has seen multiple extensions. The new deal will result in a total of four MQ-9B HALE UAVs on lease for a certain time period, The Indian Express reported. The latest lease will continue until India starts receiving the UAVs it has ordered in a 2024 deal. On September 18, 2024, one of two MQ-9 leased by the Navy & operated by General Atomics encountered a technical failure and had to be ditched at sea off the coast of Chennai. The Navy had received a replacement as per contractual obligations by February 2025.
On October 15, 2024, India had inked a contract with the US government for procurement of 31 MQ-9B Sky/Sea Guardians. This is meant to be split between the Army, Airforce and Navy. The Navy will receive 15 UAVs while the Army & IAF will get eight each. Delivery is scheduled to commence in 2029 with reported integration of the DRDO NASM-SR anti-ship missile. The State Department notification of the foreign military sale had estimated the total cost at nearly $4 billion. The notification includes armament including 170 AGM-114R Hellfire missiles and 310 GBU-39B/B Laser Small Diameter Bombs (LSDB). In the ASW role, AN/SSQ-62F, AN/SSQ-53G, and AN/SSQ-36 sonobuoys were included. It is unclear which all components of the package were opted for by India. The two UAVs to be leased will sport a similar configuration to the ordered ones. On the same day in October 2024, India also signed a contract with General Atomics Global India Pvt Ltd for Performance Based Logistics for these 31 RPAS through Depot Level MRO facilities in India.
The lease of additional MQ-9B is the latest in a series of steps taken by the Navy to improve drone based long endurance maritime ISR to support the P-8I fleet. The Indian Navy had used the Searcher MkII UAV for 22 years until decommissioning in December 2024. The Heron Mk1 UAV is also a part of the fleet. In recent years, even as the Navy leased the MQ-9 HALE UAVs & sought to purchase 15 of them, the service also inducted some MALE UAVs.
Two Hermes 900 (locally made by Adani Defence as the Drishti 10 Starliner) were ordered by the Navy with the first being delivered in January 2024. The second was ditched at sea in January 2025 during pre-acceptance trials by the manufacturer and will be replaced for the Navy. However, in July 2026 one of the Navy’s Hermes 900 crashed off Porbandar airfield during a training sortie. Reports in 2024 had suggested that the Navy will order four indigenous DRDO TAPAS UAVs, but no order has been placed yet. The Heron Mk2 UAV is also planned to be inducted by the Navy.
The Navy also inducted eight ship based rotary Schiebel Camcopter S-100 UAVs in 2024, a platform it had first evaluated for induction in 2007.
Indian infrastructure and defence firm L&T and GA-ASI had entered into a strategic partnership in October 2025 to manufacture MALE RPAs in India. The duo bid for an ongoing procurement project under which 87 MALE UAVs will be procured by the Army, IAF and Navy, combined. The IAF is taking the lead role in the procurement in which nine other firms and consortiums are under consideration.
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