PIB Tracker₹1,943 crore to rent two drones for thirty months
The Navy leases two MQ-9B Sea Guardian high-altitude long-endurance remotely piloted aircraft from General Atomics — persistent surveillance over the Indian Ocean bought as a service rather than an asset.
What happened
- The MoD contracted General Atomics for two MQ-9B Sea Guardian systems for the Indian Navy.
- They are leased for 30 months at approximately ₹1,943 crore.
- The Sea Guardian is a High-Altitude Long-Endurance Remotely Piloted Aircraft System.
- It enhances Maritime Domain Awareness with persistent ISR coverage.
- The focus is monitoring developments across the Indian Ocean Region.
For Prelims
- MQ-9B Sea Guardian: the maritime variant of the MQ-9B; SkyGuardian is the land variant.
- HALE: High-Altitude Long-Endurance — endurance measured in tens of hours, which is what makes surveillance persistent rather than episodic.
- RPAS: Remotely Piloted Aircraft System — the formal term for a crewed-from-ground aircraft.
- Leasing: introduced as a category in the Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020, allowing capability without capital acquisition.
- MDA: Maritime Domain Awareness — knowing what is moving in one's maritime area of interest.
- ISR: Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance.
- Contract value: approximately ₹1,943 crore for two systems over 30 months.
- Context: India has separately pursued a larger MQ-9B purchase, making this lease a bridging arrangement.
For UPSC: A precise defence-procurement card. Use it for leasing as an acquisition route under DAP 2020, maritime domain awareness in the Indian Ocean, unmanned ISR and its strategic value, and capability-versus-ownership trade-offs.
What it is NOT: This is a lease, not a purchase — the aircraft are not Indian assets, and the arrangement runs 30 months rather than delivering permanent capability.
For Mains
Syllabus: GS3.20 · GS2.19 · Linkage L2
Anchor
Buying surveillance as a subscription rather than an asset is a quiet change in how India acquires capability.
Substantiation (data)
Two MQ-9B Sea Guardian HALE systems leased for 30 months at approximately ₹1,943 crore.
Exemplification
Persistent ISR over the Indian Ocean is exactly the requirement a long-endurance unmanned platform meets and a manned patrol aircraft cannot sustain.
Problematisation
Leased platforms come with foreign operational support and data-handling dependencies, and 30 months of capability leaves the long-term requirement unresolved.
Way-forward
Use the lease period to build operator expertise and to mature indigenous HALE programmes rather than to defer the acquisition decision.
Position
Renting capability is sensible when the technology is moving faster than the procurement cycle — and risky if it becomes the permanent answer.
Deploys into: Security forces + foreign policy (GS3.20, GS2.19) · leasing under DAP 2020, maritime domain awareness in the Indian Ocean, and unmanned ISR.
Ministry of Defence · 2026-08-17 · PRID 2300388 · PIB source ↗