Worldwide market for UAVs predicted to total $71 billion by 2020
The worldwide market for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will grow from $5.1 billion in 2009 to a cumulative total of $71 billion from 2010 to 2020, predict analysts at Visiongain Ltd. in London in the report “The Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) Market 2010-2020: Technologies for ISR and Counter-Insurgency.”
The report examines current programs and future prospects for current and new entrants into the UAV market. Armed forces worldwide are embracing UAVs as critical tools for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), as well as for strike missions in counter-insurgency (COIN) operations.
The United States dominates the UAV market, as it integrates these systems into all its armed services and at different levels; it has also been using UAVs for border patrol, analysts say. Although not as big as the U.S. market, robust worldwide demand also comes from countries in Europe, particularly the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. Israel is a leading exporter of UAVs and a key market. There also are comprehensive plans for UAV purchases in several countries in the Pacific such as China, India, Japan, and South Korea, Visiongain analysts say.
The report covers the vast range of systems, from those only half a kilogram to those with wings as wide as a jetliner, as well as those in development that weigh only several grams, up to those designed to stay aloft in the stratosphere for a week at a time or even more. In the civilian UAV market currently led by border security applications, there are also early signs of a civil market that could be potentially vast, analysts say.
