Market Overview   

Unmanned Aerial (UA) systems have experienced operational successes from conflicts in Kosovo through Afghanistan, Iraq and other theaters across the globe.  All branches of the U.S. military use these systems, from the small hand launched to high altitude long endurance aircraft.  The key challenge in further developing and procuring these systems will be calibrating costs with capabilities.  Although these systems have provided lower cost solutions versus manned platforms, increasing capabilities per platform will affect cost.  In addition, budget pressures from the services and Congress could impact multiple airborne platforms, including unmanned.  The Intelligence, Reconnaissance and Surveillance (ISR) capability segment for unmanned aerial systems will continue to provide sustained funding while weaponized unmanned aerial systems, particularly the J-UCAS program, will face particular scrutiny due to increasing costs and potential overlap in strike assets.  Cost is a particular challenge in the commercial sector.  The commercial use of unmanned systems has interest especially in support of homeland security missions, but does not and will not have the budgets to maintain and operate these systems.   

Capabilities

UA systems have proven vital components in supporting the global war on terror.  Particularly in Afghanistan and Iraq, UA systems have been able to provide real-time data and imagery to the warfighters while decreasing the risk to human life.  UA systems provide additional capabilities, from ISR to weapons deployment, in support of net-centric operations.  The Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense labels these types of missions the “dirty, dull and dangerous” in support of the warfighter.  In other words, UA systems can fly in potentially hazardous situations such as radiation rich environment.  They can also loiter for longer durations over a particular target that would otherwise exhaust a human pilot.  Also, UA systems can enter spaces that would otherwise put the warfighter in harms way.  Increasingly, UA systems are providing capabilities to detect IEDs, track enemy movement and deliver strike capabilities.  Because of operational surveillance monitoring overseas, UA systems are being considered for homeland security missions to support border and maritime security.