{"id":280735,"date":"2024-02-02T18:18:16","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T12:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=280735"},"modified":"2024-02-02T18:18:16","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T12:48:16","slug":"mq-9b-drone-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/mq-9b-drone-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"MQ-9B drone deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source<\/strong>-This post on MQ-9B drone deal<\/strong> is based on the article “Biden administration formally notifies U.S. Congress of possible 31 MQ-9B UAV sale to India<\/strong>” published in “The Hindu<\/strong>” on 1st February 2024.<\/p>\n

Why in the News?<\/h2>\n

Recently, the U.S. Congress was officially informed<\/span> of the potential sale of 31 MQ-9B high-altitude long-endurance armed Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to India, valued at approximately $3.99 billion<\/span>.<\/p>\n

What are MQ-9B Reaper drones?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
About<\/strong><\/td>\nMQ-9B is a High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) Unmanned Aerial vehicle(UAV).<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Developed by<\/strong><\/td>\nUS based General Atomics Aeronautical Systems.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Variants<\/strong><\/td>\n1. The MQ-9B has two variants<\/span> \u2014 Sky Guardian and Sea Guardian.
\n2. The Indian Navy has been operating the MQ-9B Sea Guardian since 2020.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Features<\/strong><\/td>\n1. It can operate at over<\/span> 40,000 feet<\/span>.
\n2. It also has a maximum endurance of 40 hours<\/span>, making it useful for long-hour surveillance.
\n3. It can support land, maritime surveillance, anti-submarine warfare<\/span>, anti-surface warfare, strike, electronic warfare<\/span> and expeditionary roles.
\n4. It is equipped with advanced features such as automatic take-off and landing, detect and avoid system, anti-spoofing GPS, and encrypted communication links<\/span>.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Note-<\/strong> The deal also includes 170 AGM-114R Hellfire missiles<\/span>, 16 M36E9 Hellfire captive air training missiles, 310 GBU-39B\/B laser Small Diameter Bombs (SDB)<\/span>, and 08 GBU-39B\/B LSDB guided test vehicles with live fuzes, among other items.<\/p>\n

What are the benefits of acquiring MQ-9B Reaper drones by India?<\/h2>\n

1) Lower Operational Costs<\/strong>– It offers 80% of a manned maritime patrol aircraft’s capability<\/span> at just 20% of its hourly cost<\/span>, making it highly economical for navies.<\/p>\n

2) Enhance surveillance capability<\/strong>– For the Army and Air Force, it offers continuous surveillance extending far beyond borders<\/span>. This includes monitoring Chinese military buildup and troop movements along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and deep into enemy territory.<\/p>\n

3) Integration with existing platforms<\/strong>– It also seamlessly integrates with other U.S.-origin platforms<\/span> that India operates<\/span> such as the P-8Is, AH-64 Apache attack helicopters and MH-60R multi-role helicopters<\/span>.<\/p>\n

UPSC Syllabus- International Relations\/ Science & Technology<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source-This post on MQ-9B drone deal is based on the article “Biden administration formally notifies U.S. Congress of possible 31 MQ-9B UAV sale to India” published in “The Hindu” on 1st February 2024. Why in the News? Recently, the U.S. Congress was officially informed of the potential sale of 31 MQ-9B high-altitude long-endurance armed Unmanned… Continue reading MQ-9B drone deal<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10367,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,164,1738],"tags":[11872],"class_list":["post-280735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-international-relations-daily-factly-articles","category-science-and-technology-daily-factly-articles","tag-9pm-daily-factly","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280735\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}