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India Approves Two More MQ-9B Sea Guardian Drones to Strengthen Naval Surveillance.
India has approved the lease of two additional MQ-9B Sea Guardian drones for the Indian Navy, expanding its long-range maritime surveillance capability across the Indian Ocean Region. The move strengthens persistent ISR coverage at a time of increasing Chinese naval deployments near critical sea lanes.
India’s maritime surveillance grid is preparing for a significant expansion, as the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, has approved the lease of two additional MQ-9B Sea Guardian drones from the United States. As reported by the Times of India on December 29, 2025, the deal, valued at Rs 1,600 crore, is intended to strengthen the Indian Navy’s persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities across the Indian Ocean Region, particularly amid mounting Chinese naval activity.
India has approved the lease of two additional MQ-9B Sea Guardian drones for the Indian Navy, expanding long endurance maritime surveillance across the Indian Ocean amid heightened regional naval activity (Picture Source: General Atomics)
The lease comes as a follow-on to the earlier induction of two MQ-9Bs in 2020 under emergency procurement, which have since flown over 12,000 hours in operational missions, according to official assessments. The new pair of drones will bring the total leased fleet to four, allowing round-the-clock aerial surveillance over strategic sea lanes, chokepoints, and Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs). Operated from Naval Air Station Rajali in Tamil Nadu, the drones will remain under Indian control while the contractor ensures technical and maintenance support, reflecting a lease-operate model that has proven effective since its initial deployment.
The MQ-9B Sea Guardian is a maritime-optimized variant of the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper, boasting a maximum endurance of over 40 hours and a range exceeding 6,000 nautical miles. Designed for long-endurance, high-altitude ISR missions, the Sea Guardian is powered by a Honeywell TPE331-10 turboprop engine and can cruise at speeds above 310 km/h while maintaining operational ceilings up to 40,000 feet. Its wide-area maritime surveillance suite includes synthetic aperture radar (SAR), inverse SAR, electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensors, and Automatic Identification System (AIS) receivers for tracking shipping traffic.
As highlighted in the Times of India report, the current lease supports the Navy's need for ISR coverage in high-traffic and high-tension areas such as the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, and areas around the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. These are regions where Chinese submarines and surface vessels have been detected operating with greater frequency in recent years, prompting a reassessment of India's maritime situational awareness posture.
Technologically, the Sea Guardian represents a leap ahead for Indian ISR capabilities. It is equipped with a maritime surface-search radar, typically the Leonardo Seaspray 7500E AESA or Raytheon’s SeaVue XMC, offering real-time detection, classification, and tracking of vessels under varied weather and sea state conditions. The EO/IR turret provides high-definition imagery and target acquisition functions for daylight and low-light environments, while satellite communications allow seamless control and real-time data relay from thousands of kilometers away.
Although the current platforms are unarmed, the MQ-9B is structurally capable of carrying a full combat loadout in other configurations, including AGM-114 Hellfires and precision-guided bombs. India is expected to pursue procurement of up to 31 armed MQ-9B drones under a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program cleared by the U.S. government in 2023, a deal that would include 15 for the Navy and the rest split between the Army and Air Force. The current lease is widely seen as a stop-gap measure while that long-term acquisition progresses.
The lease model offers India an operational edge without waiting for a complex procurement cycle to conclude. The platform has already demonstrated interoperability with Indian assets such as the Boeing P-8I Neptune and has integrated into the Navy’s broader maritime ISR network. Real-time feeds from MQ-9Bs have been used to monitor suspicious shipping, assist in naval exercises, and provide overwatch during HADR missions.
This development arrives at a time when India is stepping up joint operational coordination with partners including the U.S., Japan, and Australia under the Quad framework. The MQ-9B, with its persistent surveillance capabilities, plays a pivotal role in these efforts by feeding intelligence into combined maritime domain awareness architectures.
By advancing this lease, New Delhi signals not only its intent to counterbalance increasing maritime assertiveness from adversaries but also its strategic alignment with the United States in safeguarding the Indo-Pacific’s critical sea lines of communication. The newly approved Sea Guardians are expected to enter operational deployment in early 2026, expanding India's unmanned fleet at a moment of mounting geopolitical flux across the maritime theater.