Unmanned Aerial System Market - Forecast(2024 - 2030)

Unmanned Aerial System Market Overview

Unmanned Aerial System Market Size is forecast to reach $56.5 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 15.1% during 2021-2026. Unmanned aerial systems are designed in such as way that they are operated autonomously without a pilot onboard and generally uses equipment to control it remotely such as through ground control stations or remotely piloted air systems. These are used majorly in military applications in boarder surveillance. Technological advancement such as surge in usage of Artificial Intelligence has surged the capabilities of UAVs such as takeoff, satellite navigation, satellite surveillance, data capture, data transmission, and data analysis without human intervention. During the spread of COVID-19 UAVs were widely used to prevent the spread of the virus for pilot projects. Increasing usage of unmanned aerial vehicles in civil and commercial applications, military applications, disaster relief applications, improvements in regulatory frameworks related to drone applications have driven the growth of the market.

Report Coverage

The report: “Unmanned Aerial System Market Industry Outlook– Forecast (2021-2026)”, by IndustryARC covers an in-depth analysis of the following segments of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Market

By Type: Multi-Rotor, Fixed-Wing, Single-Rotor Helicopter, Fixed Wing Hybrid VTOL
By UAV Size: Small, Medium, Large
By Application: Military & Civil, Commercial, Others
By Geography: North America (U.S, Canada, Mexico), Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Russia and Others), APAC (China, Japan India, Australia and Others), and RoW (Middle East and Africa, South America)

Key Takeaways

• Rise in adoption of UAVs due to its use in various applications like mapping, inspection, cargo handling, broadcasting, surveillance and others have driven the growth of the market.
• The multi rotor UAVs are dominating the market owing to its simple construction and maintenance along with cost effectiveness along with limited endurance and speed, making them unsuitable for large scale aerial mapping, long endurance monitoring and long distance inspection such as pipelines, roads and power lines.
• The Military sector is witnessing a significant growth in the market as these UAVs are widely procured in military applications like mapping, real time video, HD pictures, communication among others.

Unmanned Aerial System Market Segment Analysis – By Type

The Multi Rotor segment is growing at a significant market value of 18.2% in the forecast period. The multi rotor drones are used in applications like aerial photography, aerial video surveillance and others. One of the predominant driving factors for multi rotor UAVs is the cheapest availability and the easiest way to manufacture them. Furthermore, the multi rotor UAVs are widely used amateur drone racing or the leisure flying and military applications for surveillance. The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is planning to invest up to $170 million in foundry company SkyWater Technology for a multi-phase project to enhance surveillance capabilities. Owing to the increased use of these multi rotor UAVs are boosting the market.

Unmanned Aerial System Market Segment Analysis - By End Users

Military is expected to witness a highest CAGR of 16.9% the forecast period, as the UAVs are used as target decoys, combat missions, research and development, supervision and others. The technological developments in the UAVs have led to availability of feasible technical solutions for airframes, flight controls, communication and base stations. Owing to these technological developments the UAVs are widely used in military applications. At University of Tokyo the Jouhou Systems Kougaku Laboratory unveiled DRAGON drones. The dragon drone is big drone and it consists of number of small drones which is even capable of changing its shape in the midair. Moreover, in the military camps these small drones can communicate with handheld ground station (GCS) units for giving information about the threats and enemies. Furthermore, the small drones takes HD photos and provide live video feeds about the real time activities in the military bases.

Unmanned Aerial System Market Segment Analysis - By Geography

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Market in North America region held a significant market share of 36.6% in 2020. The adoption of UAVs in military applications, commercial applications and others are also witnessing the growth of UAVs in North America. Furthermore, many organizations like AirMap, Drone Map, Teal, Drone Seed, Cape and Others have also funded different technologies related to unmanned aerial vehicles thereby driving the growth of the market. In addition, the presence of countries like Canada, Mexico in North American region most of the drones used are commercial ones owing to the recreational purposes. In 2019, the government has announced to spend $738 billion in Defense sector by 2020 for various operations including modernization of equipment. Moreover, Defense spending in the country is rapidly increasing due to increased threats from other countries. In the year 2018 Mexico had a defense budget of around $ 6,568 million in 2018, a 13.6% increase from 2017, and it is expected to increase in the forecast period. These factors have driven the growth of the market in this region.

Unmanned Aerial System Market Drivers

Rise in the growth of UASs due to its use in various applications:

One of the driving factor for upsurge of UAVs is the presence of small drones, its size and speed along with uses in varying applications. In the latest CORONA VIRUS-19 outbreak these small drones have proved to be best in use throughout the sanitizing process. In the healthcare and social assistance during the COVID-19 outbreak, the drones are used for medicinal deliveries. The UAVs are used for a variety of applications like inspection, mapping, surveillance, aerial videos and many other applications. These factors are making them more prominent in the commercial, industrial and military sectors. Furthermore, the UAVs are widely used in agricultural applications for crop health monitoring, agricultural equipment monitoring, irrigation management and others. These factors are fueling the growth of the market.

Technological Advancements leading to the surge in growth of UASs:

The rise technological advancements have resulted in the establishment of simpler and efficient unmanned aerial vehicles to be used in more complex applications. The technological advancements have resulted in the development of LAN infrastructure due to which the implementation of a software layer is done in the UAVs. This software layer allows each computation module of the UAVs to support multiple applications by providing service to the network. Owing to the advanced technological advancements there is a communication gateway between the UAVS and the ground station, predominantly procured and used in military applications. NASA has designed new technologies like cutting wing weight, shape memory technology for the buildup of more efficient and scalable UAVs. These technologies founded by NASA are helping the enterprises to build stronger and lighter drones. These factors are driving the growth of the market.

Unmanned Aerial System Market Challenges

Design related challenges:

Although the multi rotor UAVs are relatively cheap and easy to manufacture there are many disadvantages of these UAVs. The prominent disadvantages are limited flying time, limited speed and endurance. Long distance aerial mapping and surveillance are tough tasks by the use of multi rotor UAVs owing to the fact that most of the multi rotor UAVs provide only 20-30 minutes fly time. These factors are hindering the growth of the market.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Market Landscape

Product launches, acquisitions, Partnerships and R&D activities are key strategies adopted by players in the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Market. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Market top 10 companies include DJI, Aerovironment,Inc., Parrot Drones SAS, Precision AWK, Airbus SAS, Boeing, Lockheed Martin Corporation, General Atomics, Textron, Inc, Thales Group among others

Acquisitions/Product Launches

• In 2020, Auterion Launched Skynode. Skynode is a fully integrated family of drone avionics module. Skynode is useful for the enterprises as it integrates the hardware and software of the drones.
• In 2020, UMS Skeldar launched V-150 UAV. The V-150 UAV is lightweighted with a takeoff weight of maximum 150kg. This UAV used signals intelligence equipment and infrared camera.

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