SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
Adani Defence along with Israel’s Elbit Systems has proposed to develop a low-cost long range high altitude, long endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial vehicle for the Indian Armed Forces that is presently looking to procure 30 Predator MQ 9B drones from the US at $100 million per unit. Adani defense which manufactures Hermes 900 UAV in the country already had offered the same for the Indian Tri-Services an advanced, battle-proven, cost-effective MALE UAV for usage across all terrain.
But Hermes 900 is a medium-altitude long-endurance UAV (MALE UAV) unlike Predator MQ 9B is HALE UAV with longer endurance and Service Ceiling due to which Adani Defence is also offering to develop a new HALE class UAV based on the Hermes 900 StarLiner that has higher range and endurance than the baseline Hermes 900.
While details of the new HALE Class UAV are still sketchy but the proposal is been under active consideration due to the high cost of the Predator MQ 9B UAVs. In response to the stalled deal, US-based General Atomics has expressed its willingness to offer ToT of the Predator MQ 9B so that it can be partially made in the country.
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