UAV market to cross $13 billion by 2014
16 Apr 2008
Washington, DC: American firms currently hold a value share of more than 50 per cent of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) market with the United States pumping significant amounts of money into this programme in response to the global war on terrorism, according to Forecast International analyst, Larry Dickerson.
According to Dickerson, the market for UAV Reconnaissance Systems, including air vehicles, ground control equipment and payloads, is expected to be worth $13.6 billion through 2014. "Although the popularity of UAVs continues to grow worldwide, the United States is by far the largest single market," said Dickerson. "American firms have a value share of more than 50 percent of this market and could gain control of a further 5-10 percent over the next decade," he added.
The dominance of American companies can be explained in part to the large US requirement, and also the high cost of certain systems being currently acquired, such as the RQ-4 Global Hawk.
"The value of Global Hawk production over the next 10 years could reach $3.5 billion," Dickerson said. Northrop Grumman believes that sales of the Global Hawk air vehicles could exceed 200 units.
By some estimates, the Global Hawk costs about $35 million each, which is the actual per-aircraft costs. Initially, per-unit costs came to $123.2 million each, when calculated along with development costs.
