Growing Market for UAVs – $80bn by 2020

Ongoing operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and to a limited extent Libya have particularly shown the usefulness of UAVs for military tasks like intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR)

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are viewed as the most exciting development in the erospace industry since powered flight began. Ongoing operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and to a limited extent Libya have particularly shown the usefulness of UAVs for military tasks like intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR). Other useful and potential military roles include strike, communications relay, transport, electronic warfare, signals intelligence, re-supply and casualty evacuation.

The military remains currently the biggest market for UAVs and is likely to do so for the foreseeable future with the US the main operator and investor in these systems. Defence budgetary pressures are expected not to make a major impact on the development of these systems, although several programmes might not be pursued due to high costs and technical risk. The UAV market will no doubt be buoyed in the coming years by a growing interest for civilian usage. Possible civilian UAV applications include law enforcement, traffic control tasks, aerial photography, fire fighting, scientific research, environmental monitoring, energy and electrical facility monitoring and coast guard support.

There are literally hundreds of different UAVs of all shapes and sizes now in production or undergoing development, ranging from small bird-like nano and micro air vehicles up to fully stealth strike aircraft.

More than 600 UAVs are available for military and civilian use and more than 250 companies are involved in the sector

Source : ASDReports.com – Market Research