Global Airborne ISR Market - Global Trends, Forecast and Analysis (2022 - 2030)

The growth in the airborne ISR market is driven by increased acquisitions of UAVs. Within that, segmented unmanned aerial combat vehicles will be one of the fastest growing sectors. Middle Eastern and Eastern European countries, on account of the need for better border protection and surveillance due to terrorist activities, political and religious clashes, will be one of the fastest growing regions in the air-based platforms segment.

Advances in UAV Technology

Unmanned vehicles are being used for wide variety of missions. Primarily they are being used for ISR, long duration missions where data collection is very much needed. In future they are expected to move to cargo transportation and more manned-unmanned teaming where they can act as extensions for a manned aircraft.
US Air Force currently flies, MQ-9 Reaper, MQ-1 Predator, and RQ-4 Global Hawk drones remotely using US pilots to navigate from a ground control station. The new strategy expects that additional unmanned platforms and existing UAS will be engineered to perform a wider range of functions without needing human intervention – such as data analysis. US Air Force started developing the C-17 cargo planes for unmanned missions, which allows the aircraft to reach high-risk forward locations with weapons, supplies and ammunition which is expected to drive the ISR market in the cargo division.

Increased Awareness of UAVs in Developing Countries

Use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for humanitarian work in developing countries is a major area in the market which is being explored. Search and rescue, emergency mapping, figuring out population movements and mapping out damaged homes, can be done at a higher resolution and a cheaper cost than using helicopters and satellites.
Lack of access to healthcare resources is also a major problem in developing regions. Annually, millions of lives are lost to HIV, malaria, tuberculosis and childbirth which can be prevented with access to fresh medical supplies.
India and China are also investing heavily in the development and purchase of UAVs. Defense Research and Development Organization is leading the charge in India to develop new UAVs, such as AURA, Rustom and Nishant. Growth in the air-based ISR market will be led by the Asia-Pacific. The region will see maximum growth due to rising economic prosperity and rise in threat perception. With the growing need for more UAVs, mission-ready aircraft with integrated C2, C4, intelligence and surveillance capability, the demand for airborne market is expected to grow during exponentially in the region in the forecast period.

Key Developments:

• Feburary 2018: Lockheed Martin has developed VCSi, a new control software that enables operators to simultaneously control multiple UAS and conduct ISR missions from anywhere around the globe.
• June 2017: Boeing Co's Insitu Inc and Textron Inc's AAI Corp were awarded USD 475 million contract each by the US Special Operations Command to manufacture ISR for the US army.
• June 2017: Textron Systems Unmanned Systems' Nightwarden Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System (TUAS) mades its international debut at Paris-Le Bourget Airport.

Major Players: LOCKHEED MARTIN, L-3 COMMUNICATIONS, BAE SYSTEMS, NORTHROP GRUMMAN, UTC AEROSPACE SYSTEMS, amongst others.

Reasons to Purchase this Report

• Study on the adoption of Airborne ISR in developing regions and its effects on the global airborne ISR industry.
• Analyzing various perspectives of the market with the help of Porter’s five forces analysis.
• Study on the region expected to witness fastest growth during the forecast period.
• 3 months analyst support along with the Market Estimate sheet (in excel).

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