By Shyam Bhatia
Farnborough, July 22. Only the best will do for India where General Atomics is concerned.
The San Diego, California-based company that specialises in research and technology development, is also a leading manufacturer of remotely operated surveillance aircraft- Drones – that help preserve the safety of Indian skies.
“We prefer to call them intelligence reconnaissance aircraft”, says C. Mark Brinkley, Senior Director for Strategic Communications and Marketing at General Atomics Aeronautical.
Brinkley was speaking exclusively to India Strategic on the sidelines of the Farnborough International where the company has been showcasing its products, including the MQ9s currently leased to the Indian Navy.
Deployed for both land and maritime operations the all weather MQ9 Sea Guardians can be continuously deployed for more than 40 hours at altitudes of 40,000 ft and above. They are currently operated from land bases but are being adapted for use from aircraft carriers and amphibious assault carriers.
They combine a length of 38 ft (11.7m), wingspan of 79 ft (24m) and a payload capacity of 4,750 lb (2155 kg).
Despite reports earlier in the year that India was reconsidering plans for a large scale purchase of SeaGuardians, India Strategic understands negotiations are still in progress for the purchase of upto 30 aircraft.
“We’ve been working with the Government of India and the Indian military for many months”, Brinkley confirmed. “what we’re getting back is that they’re pleased with the aircraft’s capabilities. Certainly, it would be a valuable tool for the military.”
Talks to purchase the Sea Guardians first started back in 2017 during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US. Subsequent discussions have been held in Tokyo to discuss sales of the SeaGuardians to the Japan Coast Guard.
Contacts have also been established with two Belgian companies for the development and growth of future technologies within General Atomics’ remotely piloted aircraft ecosystem.
Forthcoming projects include a new Mojave line of unmanned air systems (UAS) than can operate from roads and dry river beds, as well as Defender, Sparrowhawk and the recently announced Gambit. Sparrowhawk is a smaller UAS that can be launched and recovered by SeaGuardian and Gambit is described as an Autonomous Collaborative Platform (ACP) designed through digital engineering to deliver an extended and enhanced sensing capability.
