Report: US Sale of General Atomics-Built UAS to India Nears State Dept Approval

The State Department is close to approving the sale of 22 General Atomics-built MQ-9B Guardian unmanned aircraft systems to India, Defense News reported Friday.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to meet President Donald Trump Monday as part of his U.S. trip and is expected to discuss the foreign military sales deal with Trump, among other topics.

Guardian is a variant of the Predator B UAS platform and equipped with multiple radar platforms designed for use in maritime search operations.

“We are pleased that the U.S. government has cleared the way for the sale of the MQ-9B Guardian to the Indian government,” Linden Blue, CEO of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, told Defense News in a statement.

Blue added that the drone will work to provide India “maritime domain awareness in the Indo-Pacific.”

General Atomics predicts the proposed transaction will result in the creation of approximately 5,000 U.S. jobs via the company’s supply chain, the report added.