US approves $4 billion deal to sell India 31 MQ-9B SkyGuardian drones

WASHINGTON — The US State Department today notified Congress that it has greenlit the potential sale of 31 MQ-9B SkyGuardian drones and related missiles, bombs and other equipment to India in a deal estimated to be worth just under $4 billion.

“This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by helping to strengthen the U.S.-Indian strategic relationship and to improve the security of a major defense partner which continues to be an important force for political stability, peace, and economic progress in the Indo-Pacific and South Asia region,” the State Department said in the public notification. The proposed sale will improve India’s capability to meet current and future threats by enabling unmanned surveillance and reconnaissance patrols in sea lanes of operation.”

India’s defense ministry approved the procurement of the General Atomics-made airframes in June, according to Reuters, which also reported the Biden administration had pushed New Delhi over the deal ahead of a state visit by Indian leader Narendra Modi.

During his tenure, US President Joe Biden has pushed for closer defense relations with India, a potential counterweight to American rival China in Asia. In January 2023, the US and India announced a joint Critical and Emerging Technology initiative “to elevate and expand our strategic technology partnership and defense industrial cooperation between governments, businesses, and academic institutions of our two countries.”

Late in 2023 US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin traveled to India, where he signed a new “defense industrial base cooperation roadmap” with the Indian defense minister. That, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner told reporters, was a “historic agreement that is setting our countries toward a deeper level of cooperation in an area to which there has been aspiration for decades, and often fits and starts.”

General Atomics describes the MQ-9B SkyGuardian, as well as its maritime brethren the MQ-9B SeaGuardian, as a descendant of the company’s famous MQ-9A Reaper. With a 79-foot wingspan, General Atomics says the MQ-9B “provides enhanced payload capacity and an open architecture system that enables the aircraft to integrate the most advanced sensor payloads for intelligence gathering, survivability, and even kinetic payloads for more complex operational environments.”

The State Department’s approval of a big MQ-9B sale to India comes as General Atomics said it’s working with US officials to clear the way for another large sale, this one for MQ-9Bs to the United Arab Emirates — an estimated $3 billion deal that got wrapped up in a bigger, but more controversial F-35 sale.

Today’s notice to India is not the final word on the sale as prices and unit figures could change as negotiations progress, and lawmakers could always step in to halt the sale.