Drone Payload Market Expected to Grow

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UAVs carry onboard a variety of critical electronic systems. Types of payloads include EO/IR, Cameras, Synthetic aperture radar (SAR), Sigint, Elint, Comint, MPR, Laser Sensors, CBRN Sensors & Optronics etc.

A new report, “Drone Payload Market – Global Forecast to 2021”, pusblished by marketsandmarkets, estimates that the drone payload global market size is $3.63 Billion in 2016 and is projected to reach $7.72 Billion by 2021, registering a CAGR of 16.25% during the forecast period.

A number of factors, such as advancement in sensor technology and increasing focus towards using economical solutions for surveillance, are expected to drive the UAV payload market.

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) segment is projected to lead the drone payload market during the forecast period. The market for SAR is primarily driven by the need for economical surveillance solutions with enhanced performance abilities for defense applications, in terms of identifying potential threats.

Commercial drone payload segment is estimated to grow at the fastest rate during the forecast period, owing to increasing use of UAVs in civil applications, and relaxing of various regulatory norms.

North America is expected to lead the drone payload market due to increasing focus of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) on using unmanned aerial vehicles for surveillance, and battle assessment and target acquisition-related tasks. This is due to the low cost of operations as compared to manned aircraft, which are expensive to procure and entail higher risks.

Major players in the drone payload market are SZ DJI Technologies (China), Lockheed Martin (U.S.), Elbit Systems (Israel), Northrop Grumman Corporation (U.S.), Thales Group (France), and 3D Robotics (U.S.), among others.