The Indian Navy said the high-altitude-long-endurance MQ-9B Sea Guardian drone which it had acquired from the US on lease was ditched into the Bay of Bengal off Chennai after developing a technical failure on Wednesday.
"A high altitude long endurance remotely piloted aircraft leased by the Indian Navy operating from INS Rajali, Arakonnam encountered a technical failure at about 2 pm while on a routine surveillance mission which could not be reset in flight," the Indian Navy said in a statement.
"The aircraft was navigated to a safe area over sea and carried out a controlled ditching at sea off Chennai," it said.
The drone, capable of carrying out surveillance for more than 30 hours, was taken on lease from American defence major General Atomics for surveillance in the Indian Ocean in 2020. The initial lease period of one year was later extended.
According to Defence Research and Studies, these drones can "undertake seamless reconnaissance using long-range maritime radar, ESM, an automatic identification system, and a top-notch self-contained anti-submarine warfare mission kit for underwater surveillance."
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General Atomics, which has been operating the drones and carrying out maintenance works, is expected to replace the lost drone with another as per the lease agreement.
The incident comes even as India is considering the purchase of the 31 MQ-9B Predator drones from the company for $3 billion as part of the plan to ramp up the surveillance capabilities of the armed forces.