Unprecedented Growth in the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Market over the Next Decade

December 18, 2014

NSR’s newly released Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) via Satellite report projects impressive growth for satellite-based UAS in all regions, with revenues rising from $1.3 billion in 2013 to $3.1 billion in 2023.  This explosive growth is tied to geo-political instabilities in many regions, and demand for UAS Satcom services from governments and international organizations, homeland security, disaster management, and peace-keeping activities.  

To date, the UAS industry has primarily been a government & military market with Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) being the biggest application driving satcom demand.  The decision to withdraw U.S. and NATO troops from Afghanistan greatly affected the market as defense budget cuts were implemented. But UAS procurement and transponder lease revenues are forecast to grow past the end of 2015, as the U.S. Government is expected to require more ISR in various regions of conflict. Civilian UAS applications are set to become a major growth driver starting in late 2016, and early 2017, as airspace regulations are put in place by the Air Transport authorities such as the FAA.

“In these times of network centric warfare, UAS is the item every armed force in the world aims to possess in large numbers to gain access to information in faraway locations with as little collateral damage as possible,” states NSR Analyst and report author, Prateep Basu, “Aside from defense, the civilian UAS applications such as, border and maritime patrol, cargo delivery, and emergency response during disasters, make this market too important and diverse to ignore for long”, adds Mr. Basu.

New evolving payloads on-board UAS have made bandwidth to and from these airborne platforms the greatest constraint for their operations.  NSR therefore expects commercial satellite operators to continue securing a large piece of this market as government-owned capacity struggles to meet demand, and faces infrastructure compatibility issues with existing UAS fleets.