Simulators Market - Forecast(2024 - 2030)

Flight simulator for military and defense application is likely to register a CAGR of 4.2% during forecast period 2021-2026. Globally, training budgets for defense organizations and armed forces are tightening, while requirements to deliver cost-effective, high-quality training are increasing. Governments across the world are reducing military costs due to reduced financial resources. The defense ministries of many countries are reducing their training budgets and are downscaling the militaries. This has increased the focus of the military in attaining cheaper and effective solutions for their requirement. In addition, military simulation and virtual training are progressively getting adopted by the armed forces of many countries across the globe. They help reduce training costs as they are based on Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) components. These factors are significant for the armed forces to invent massive innovation in simulation-based training technologies. Moreover, increasing need for modification of existing equipment and order for new advanced equipment is anticipated to drive the growth of the military simulation and virtual training market. For instance, Bohemia Interactive Simulation developed an Augmented Reality (AR) visual systems for Textron, Inc. These systems support a trainee’s interactions with the real world using VR/AR technologies and offers a synthetically generated visual scene.

In 2020, North America dominated the Flight Simulator industry market size for about 38.1% market share, followed by APAC and Europe. Early adoption of advanced technologies has been driving the simulator in this region. Rising adoption of smart technologies in aerospace, defense and other has been increasing the demand for simulators In U.S. strict guidelines imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) regarding use of simulators for training purpose. According to new FAR regulations, Air carriers must compulsory develop training programs using simulators that meet the upgraded requirements. Stringent regulations as such will drive the usage of simulators in this region. Similarly high demand for air travel in U.S. is also one of the major reason for flight simulator market as it increases the need for pilot training. For instance according to the report given by International Air Transport Association (IATA), in 2019, global passenger traffic in North America increased by 6.5%. By 2022, U.S Military had committed to invest more than $11 billion for virtual, augmented and mixed reality training systems and simulator which will drive market growth.

Rising collaborations between OEMs to OEMs or governments to OEMs for advancements, expansions and contracts is analysed to drive the market growth in the forecast period. In 2019, CAE partnered with JetBlue airways to provide 2 CAE 500XR flight training devices and 2 Airbus A220- 300 CAE 7000XR series full flight simulators. Similarly In 2019, CAE and EasyJet partnered and inaugurated a new training center in Milan, the CAE Milan training center, which is expected to train 2000 pilots annually on CAE’s 600XR FTD. In 2019, Rockwell Collins Simulation & Training Solutions awarded with $40.2 million contract for the E-8 aircrew training device sustainment to contractor logistics support for the JSTARS (Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar Systems) simulators. In January 2019, Fidelity technologies delivered UH-60A flight training devices to the Afghanistan air force special mission wing by end of 2020. In March 2019, Thales received a contract from Caverton Helicopters (Africa) to provide Thales’ Reality-H Full Flight Simulator to train the pilots of Caverton helicopters for the AW139 aircraft platform. This helped the company in expanding its customer base in Africa. In 2020, L3 Harris Technologies Inc. had been awarded with $900 million contract to design and deploy common platforms and standards across the Air Force’s array of training simulators until 2030. Such collaborations propel adoption of simulators

Simulation-based military training is gaining popularity amongst defence organizations as it offers the dual benefit of boosting operational effectiveness while reducing costs. In addition this type of training also takes away the costs associated with running vehicles, operating weapons and maintaining an environment, making it a highly cost-effective solution for the armed forces. Moreover, commercial technologies such as advanced simulators are transforming the global market and have the potential to bring down military training costs. Further, governments of several countries have been collaborating with several simulator OEM for efficient training. In 2019, Saab has signed a three-year contract with the UK Ministry of Defence for the provision of support and services to the Direct Fire Weapon Effects Simulator (DFWES) capability. In 2020, Aviation manufacturer CAE USA is authorized to proceed on the US Army contract to provide advanced helicopter flight training support services. Similarly other countries such as India, U.K, and so on are adopting these simulators in order to reduce cost of training and also to ensure safety. Hence these factors drive the market growth in the forecast period 2021-2026.

COVID-19 situation have created a negative impact on the growth of the global simulator market. As it has been noticed that due to the pandemic most of the activities, training modules and various operational activities have been stopped which has created a negative impact on the global market. Moreover the aviation industry has suffered more as the pandemic destroyed ticket due to which the revenue of the companies declined. As a result, many companies will look to limit the spending especially on purchasing new simulators. Hence this factor hampers the market in the short term.

Partnership and acquisitions are key strategies adopted by players in the Flight Simulator market. In 2018, flight Simulator market industry outlook was consolidated with the top five players accounting for more than 52.45% of the share. Flight Simulator top 10 companies include CAE, Boeing, FlightSafety Inc., L3 Harris Technology, Thales, Airbus, Kongsberg, General Dynamics, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman among others.

Report Code ITR 91281