The MQ-9B SeaGuardian drone is the platform the Indian Navy leaned on again this week, when the Ministry of Defence signed a fresh lease for two more of the type on Monday. For readers meeting the aircraft for the first time, this is what it is and what it does at sea.

What the MQ-9B SeaGuardian drone is

Built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, the SeaGuardian is the maritime version of the company's MQ-9B SkyGuardian. It is a High Altitude Long Endurance remotely piloted aircraft, or HALE RPAS in the language the services use, and the airframe is the same descendant of the Predator line that has flown over conflict zones for two decades, adapted here for work over water.

The manufacturer says the aircraft is designed to stay airborne for more than 30 hours at a stretch, flying over the horizon by satellite link in most weather. Indian officials have put its endurance higher, at over 35 hours depending on the mission and payload, and it cruises at altitudes reaching around 50,000 feet.

What separates it from a smaller tactical drone is reach and time on task. A single SeaGuardian can loiter over a patch of ocean for the better part of two days, sending live imagery and video back to a ground station that may sit hundreds of miles away.

Sensors, sonobuoys and the maritime mission

General Atomics fits the SeaGuardian with a wide-area maritime search radar mounted on the centreline, an automatic identification system that reads the transponder signals merchant ships broadcast, and electronic support measures that pick up other emitters at sea. Together these let one aircraft build a picture of surface traffic across a vast area.

It also hunts submarines.

For anti-submarine work the aircraft carries a self-contained mission kit built around sonobuoys, the small sensors dropped into the sea to listen for what moves below it. The manufacturer says a SeaGuardian can hold and dispense up to 40 of the larger sonobuoys, or 80 of the smaller size, from pods on its wings, then monitor and control them from the air. It puts the aircraft's mission radius at around 1,200 nautical miles, which is what makes persistent patrols over open water possible.

The weapons question

The same airframe can be armed. Defence sources have said the MQ-9B can carry up to four Hellfire missiles and around 450 kg of bombs, and the Predator family is best known abroad as a strike platform. In Indian naval service the emphasis has been on surveillance rather than weapons.

Defence commentators have noted the tradeoff. The MQ-9's exposure to modern land-based air defences limits its value as a strike aircraft over contested territory. Over open ocean, where threats are spread thin and the distances far greater, the same endurance and sensor fit make it well suited to maritime patrol, which is why the naval variant has drawn the least argument.

Part of a bigger drone push

The two leased aircraft sit alongside a much larger commitment. In October 2024 India signed a government-to-government deal with the United States for 31 MQ-9B drones, worth nearly USD 4 billion, or roughly Rs 32,000 crore. Under that programme the Navy is due 15 SeaGuardians, while the Army and the Air Force take eight SkyGuardians each, and first deliveries under the purchase are not expected before January 2029.

That scale has drawn debate. Some analysts have questioned whether the outlay is justified, arguing that the geography which keeps rival navies out of narrow waters elsewhere does not carry over to the open Indian Ocean. Others point to persistence, reach, and the lower running cost of an unmanned watch against a manned patrol aircraft.

India's unmanned plans run wider still. The Indian Coast Guard has moved on its own medium altitude drones, and the Air Force is running a separate tender for scores of unmanned aircraft. The SeaGuardian is the high end of that mix, the long-range eyes rather than the workhorse.

Why the Navy leased two more now

The Navy is not new to the type. It first took two SeaGuardians on lease in 2020, and later kept them on, using them to watch the Indian Ocean and, at one point, to track Chinese activity near eastern Ladakh.

The fleet has taken losses.

One of the two leased aircraft was lost in September 2024, coming down in a controlled ditching at sea after a technical fault, and General Atomics later sent a replacement under the terms of the contract. The new lease signed on Monday, valued at approximately Rs 1,943 crore for 30 months, keeps the capability in place while the purchased fleet is still years away.

The timing is deliberate. The existing lease runs out in early 2027, and the two newly leased aircraft will overlap with the current pair for a few months so that the Navy's long-range watch over the Indian Ocean does not lapse.