Indian Navy's MQ-9B Predator drone crashes after technical failure in Bay of Bengal

The incident comes as India is in the process of procuring 31 MQ-9B Predator drones

The Ministry of Defence on Wednesday said that an MQ-9B Predator High Altitude Long Endurance Remotely Piloted Aircraft (HALE RPA) which was being operated by Indian Navy encountered a technical failure on Wednesday, after which the aircraft was navigated to a safe area over the sea and carried out a controlled ditching at sea off Chennai.

"A High Altitude Long Endurance Remotely Piloted Aircraft (HALE RPA ) leased by the Indian Navy operating from INS Rajali, Arakonnam near Chennai encountered a technical failure at about 1400 hrs whilst on a routine surveillance mission which could not be reset in flight," the Ministry of Defence said. Later, the aircraft was navigated to a safe area over the sea and carried out a controlled ditching at sea off Chennai, it stated.

"A detailed report has been sought from the Original EquipmentManufacturer (OEM)," it added.

"The MQ-9B Predator drones flying for the Indian Navy are operated by General Atomics under a lease agreement between the Indian Navy and the American firm. The Indian side pays only for the services provided by the vendor and the drones are flown by the pilots from the vendor side. The Indian side has asked for a detailed report from the vendors on the accident, "Navy officials said, as reported by news agency ANI. In 2020, the Indian Navy had taken on lease two MQ-9B Sea Guardian drones from American defence major General Atomics for a period of one year for surveillance in the Indian Ocean. The lease period has been extended subsequently.

The incident comes as India is in the process of procuring 31 MQ-9B Predator drones. India is planning to acquire the drones at a cost of nearly USD 3 billion primarily to crank up the surveillance apparatus of the armed forces, especially along the contested frontier with China.

The MQ-9B drone is a variant of the MQ-9 "Reaper" which was used to launch a modified version of the Hellfire missile that eliminated al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in the heart of Kabul in July 2022.