The Indian Navy has inducted two MQ-9B Sea Guardian unarmed drones procured from the U.S. on lease for one year. All planning, execution and operations will be with the Indian Navy. The Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) will play a support role for maintenance as laid down in the agreement.
Two U.S. General Atomics MQ-9B Sea Guardian intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance drones arrived at the Arakkonam naval air station in Tamil Nadu in November to boost the military’s surveillance sweep capabilities. The leased, directly from General Atomics under emergency procurement rules, was necessitated by the Ladakh situation amidst a live military confrontation with China and the need for elevated surveillance over the Indian Ocean.
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As part its force restructuring to offset budgetary constraints, the Navy has been looking to induct more unmanned solutions, both aerial and underwater. As part of this, the requirement of additional P-8I maritime patrol aircraft has been cut down from 10 to six and was to be offset by procurement of long endurance drones.
The Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020 had introduced an option for leasing military platforms.
In 2019, the Navy had asked General Atomics for details of the Sea Guardian, following which company officials made detailed presentations on its capabilities.
The Guardian, which is the maritime variant of the Predator MQ-9 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), has a maximum endurance of 40 hours and a maximum flying altitude of 40,000 feet. It has a 3600 maritime surveillance radar and an optional multimode maritime surface search radar.
According to the company’s data sheet, the drone can “perform over-the-horizon long-endurance, medium-altitude Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions.”
The Sea Guardian drones under lease by the Indian Navy are not weaponised, though the type is capable of being configured for anti-surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare and the airborne anti-mine capability.
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The pair of Sea Guardians are only a fraction of the 22-30 such drones, including armed versions, that the Indian military has been looking to procure since the Obama Administration. A tri-service proposal to procure 10 Unmanned Aerial vehicles (UAV) for each Service from the U.S., including armed drones has been in the pipeline for sometime but has been delayed due to budgetary considerations.
The drones arrived well after India signed the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCAS) with the United States, paving the way for export controlled communication equipment held off earlier military hardware like the Indian Navy’s Boeing P-8Is and Indian Air Force’s C-130J and C-17 aircraft.
The drones also arrived shortly after India and the U.S. managed to nail down the last of the foundational military cooperation agreements, the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-Spatial Cooperation (BECA).
About the Sea Guardians
The Sea Guardian RPAS features a multi-mode maritime surface-search radar with Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR) imaging mode, an Automatic Identification System (AIS) receiver, a High-Definition – Full-Motion Video sensor equipped with optical and infrared cameras. This sensor suite, augmented by automatic track correlation and anomaly-detection algorithms, enables real-time detection and identification of surface vessels over thousands of square nautical miles.
Specifically, the Sea Guardian’s onboard sensors included the GA-ASI Lynx® Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), a Raytheon Intelligence & Space SeaVue Expanded Mission Capability (XMC) radar, a Raytheon Intelligence & Space Multi-Spectral Targeting System, a Leonardo Electronic Support Measure (ESM)/Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) SAGE 750, a Shine Micro Automatic Identification System (AIS), an Ultra sono buoy receiver and a General Dynamics Mission Systems-Canada sono buoy processor.
Other Leasing Possibilities
The Defense Ministry introduced a stop-gap solution under the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020. The government allowed the three services – Army, Navy and the Air Force – to lease equipment rather than buying them in one go.
In 2019, India had rented an Akula-1 class nuclear-powered attack submarine from Russia for a period of 10 years at a $3billion contract. Russia will deliver the Akula-1 class submarine, to be known as Chakra III, to the Indian Navy by 2025.
The Navy has approached foreign vendors to enquire about short term lease of helicopters that can be used to transport supplies and personnel between ships with a secondary surveillance role. Under the newly introduced Defense ministry leasing guidelines, the Indian Navy is looking to lease 12-18 light utility helicopters for its logistical needs from foreign vendors.
The helicopters that will be leased will later be refitted with light weapons by the Navy as per its requirement adding that the helicopters will likely be equipped only with a machine gun during the lease period.
The Navy currently possesses the multirole Chetak choppers that were first delivered in 1965 and have been the backbone of the Search and Rescue (SAR), Casualty Evacuation and Route Transport Role (RTR) operations. However, the Navy is now looking to replace the ageing fleet of choppers.
While the IN has been quick at leasing equipment, the IAF is also consiodering lease of Basic Trainer Aircraft (BTA) and possibly even air-refuelers which has been a long-standing requirement for over a decade.
DAP Provisions
According to the DAP-2020, leasing of new or previously-used equipment is best suited where the time constraint militates against outright procurement or if the capability it provides is needed for a specific time period. Leasing is also recommended if the military asset or platform would remain underutilised if procured, its requirement is in limited numbers, and the cost of creating administrative and maintenance infrastructure is high. Obtaining operational experience would also be an objective for leasing.
The DAP-2020 gives the option of choosing between an ‘Operating Lease’ -an arrangement where the concerned asset may be acquired by the MoD at the end of the cessation of the leased period at a mutually agreed-price or a ‘Finance Lease’, under which the MoD pays the entire cost of the asset over the lease period and consequently assumes its ownership.
The Operating Lease could be a Dry Lease, in which only the asset is leased or alternately a Wet/Damp lease, under which the lessor provides the asset, crew, maintenance, and insurance to the lessee.
Leasing allows a cost-effective process to acquire military equipment without a commitment to capital expenditure. But leasing also requires a realistic assessment of likely budgetary allocations before opting for large-scale equipment leasing.
However, even for leasing military equipment, a formal process of acceptance of necessity (AON), request for information (RFI) and so on are required to be followed, which is similar to the regular acquisition process and can be time-consuming.
