An MQ-9B Sea Guardian aircraft leased from the US crashes in the Bay of Bengal

The MQ-9B Sea Guardian has a maximum flight altitude of 40,000 meters.

A high-altitude MQ-9B Sea Guardian jet operated by the Indian Navy from the US crashed into the Bay of Bengal near Chennai after experiencing a technical failure on Wednesday (September 18, 2024). The aircraft was operating from the INS Rajali Naval Air Station in Arakkonam near Chennai, the Indian Navy said.

In 2020, the Indian Navy leased two MQ-9B Sea Guardian aircraft from General Atomics of the US defense for a year for surveillance in the Indian Ocean. The lease term is subsequently extended.

“The remotely piloted aircraft operated by the Indian Navy operating at INS Rajali, Arakonnam encountered a technical problem at around 2:00 a.m. while on a patrol route and was unable to resume flight,” the Indian military said in a statement. .

“The aircraft was diverted to a safe place offshore and made a controlled ditching in the sea near Chennai,” it said.

The Navy required a detailed report from the OEM or original equipment manufacturer. Controlled ditching generally refers to an emergency landing of an aircraft in water.

General Atomics operated and maintained the drones under a lease.

The company is expected to replace the missing drone as authorized under the agreement.

The incident comes as India is in the process of buying 31 MQ-9B Predator jets. India is planning to acquire drones at a cost of nearly three billion dollars to strengthen the surveillance services of the armed forces, especially on the disputed border with China.

In June last year, the Department of Defense approved the purchase of MQ-9B Predator fighter jets from the US under a government-to-government arrangement.

The MQ-9B aircraft is a variant of the MQ-9 “Reaper” that was used to launch a modified version of the Hellfire missile that took out al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in the heart of Kabul in July 2022.