With India’s recent acquisition of 31 MQ-9B, what is the expected timeline for delivery for the forces? Are there any special requests from the chief of All Forces?
The MQ-9B SkyGuardians and SeaGuardians from General Atomics will provide a strategic capability that will significantly enhance India’s security. The MQ-9B remotely piloted aircraft enables Indian military users to fly farther than anything else in this category, spend more time in the air and handle a greater diversity of missions than any other similar aircraft.
As for specific information on deliveries, since this is an FMS case, the delivery schedule has been determined between both the Indian and U.S. governments, and we look forward to seeing this world class capability inducted into all three services in India in the near future.
Could you elaborate on MQ-9B’s advanced features, and how that will enhance the Indian Armed Forces capabilities?
MQ-9B delivers full-motion video in virtually any conditions, day or night, as well as other kinds of detailed sensing with their onboard systems. The aircraft also can carry a wide variety of specialist payloads if they must adopt to a specific mission.
A SkyGuardian becomes a SeaGuardian, for example, when it carries a 360-degree maritime search radar that gives users a quality of maritime domain awareness they can’t achieve any other way. Artificial intelligence, machine learning and other sophisticated technologies help unlock the rich feed of insight from these aircraft, analyze it and distribute it to those who need it to take quick decisions.
Other payloads include communications relays – so the aircraft can serve as a node connecting forces over land or sea – or other intelligence, surveillance or military systems. These aircraft can conduct search and rescue, help fight wildfires, support customs authorities, augment naval forces and take many other tasks.
Then there is the MQ-9B’s proprietary Detect and Avoid System, invented by GA-ASI, which enables the RPA to operate in civil airspace just like any other aircraft. This eliminates the need for special arrangements to be made in order for the aircraft to fly and perform its mission.
In short, MQ-9B is the premier multi-role, long endurance remotely piloted aircraft in the world today. It is in high demand. The U.S., Japan, Belgium, Great Britain, Poland, and several other nations are either flying or are on track to fly them soon.
General Atomics is working closely with Indian companies like HAL and Bharat Forge. How do these partnerships support India’s ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative and the Make in India plan?
General Atomics is committed to Indian Prime Minister Modi’s ‘Make in India’ strategy and we’re looking forward to much more cooperation with Indian companies as we move forward. General Atomics is actively engaging with Indian industry, and we will have Indian content on these aircraft. In fact, we are engaged with India on our full line of platforms and capabilities.
Do you see HAL’s (Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.) experience in TPE-331 engine maintenance will enhance the lifecycle support of MQ-9B drones in India?
We announced our partnership with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to use HAL Engine Division at Bengaluru to support turbo-propeller engines. HAL and its vast experience in the domain of aero-engine technology makes it a natural partner for GA in India. Though the turboprop engine fitted onboard the MQ-9B RPA produced by GA looks like other commercial engines in its category, ours is unique in its configuration and operation, and requires special training and equipment to maintain, repair and overhaul. So, we are working with HAL to formulate a comprehensive engine MRO program for upcoming RPA projects.
How do partnerships with Indian high-tech companies like 114ai and 3rdiTech contribute to the development of GA aircraft?
With 114ai, we are looking forward to working on NextGen AI technologies. AI is an important area of cooperation between the U.S. and India and GA sees the capabilities demonstrated by the 114ai team as extremely valuable for military operators. Their technology, track record and tenacity with customers in the U.S. and U.K. has stood out to us. We expect many world-leading products to come out of this partnership.
As for semiconductors, working with 3rdiTech is pivotal to us as semiconductors are really the defining technology of this era. The team and capability being developed at 3rdiTech are representative of the new India under Prime Minister Modi’s leadership. GA-ASI will work with 3rdiTech, one of the inaugural winners of the Indian Ministry of Defence’s flagship iDEX Program, to transition this cutting-edge capability onto some of India’s platforms.
How is General Atomics leveraging AI and autonomy to redefine the operational effectiveness of unmanned systems like MQ-9B and CCA?
There are many new technologies that are being adapted to our aircraft. As mentioned previously, one technology that is well-suited is our development of Autonomy and AI pilots, where we can integrate and implement behaviors and services from a variety of military organizations and defense contractors. As we see it, there’s still “trust” in the AI Pilot to be matured before allied militaries will realize the vision for large-scale, integrated, autonomous unmanned combat aerial vehicles – or UCAVs – but GA and its partners are collaborating to develop and mature multiple emerging technologies to get there.
We’ve demonstrated an array of autonomous and AI capabilities in an open ecosystem that we think will set the standard for operationally relevant mission systems capabilities on UCAV platforms. A combination of airborne high-performance computing, sensor fusion, human-machine teaming and AI pilots making decisions at the speed of relevance shows how quickly our capabilities are maturing as we move to operationalize autonomy for UCAVs.
What are the biggest challenges in advancing India-U.S. relations in the current geopolitical climate?
The U.S. and India are the oldest and largest democracies respectively. Countering common adversaries requires increasing alignment of like-minded nations across the Indo-Pacific region. This exercise is necessarily complex given its scale and implications but nothing these powers cannot overcome with sustained effort; MQ-9B is a great example of an area in which it works.
Are there plans to deepen the partnership between General Atomics and Indian entities to co-develop advanced UAV systems or other defense technologies?
I believe there are opportunities to collaborate on defence technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and cybersecurity. In addition, we can join together on efforts to promote clean energy and develop sustainable infrastructure. Finally, we could partner in space exploration, satellite development, and space-based applications.
