MQ-9B SEAGUARDIAN — INDIA EXPANDS LONG-RANGE MARITIME SURVEILLANCE CAPABILITY
30 August 2026
PRERNA FOR IAS
Mehnat Aapki, Guidance Humari
Roz ki Prelims Practice — Experts ke Saath
MQ-9B SEAGUARDIAN — INDIA EXPANDS LONG-RANGE MARITIME SURVEILLANCE CAPABILITY
Context
On 17 August 2026, the Ministry of Defence signed a contract with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) to lease two MQ-9B SeaGuardian High-Altitude Long-Endurance (HALE) Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems for the Indian Navy for 30 months. The contract is valued at about ₹1,943 crore.
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India leases two MQ-9B SeaGuardian drones to strengthen maritime surveillance and domain awareness across the Indian Ocean Region for 30 months.
Keywords
MQ-9B SeaGuardianmaritime surveillanceHALE droneIndian NavyISR capabilityIndian Ocean Regionmaritime domain awarenessunmanned aircraft