An ability to cooperate on programs will be critical because countries are leaning on cost sharing as defense spending in many places falls, said Phil Finnegan, an analyst with the Teal Group. “Cooperation, that is a direction that the industry is going,” Finnegan said. “Japan is now moving in that direction as well.” But Finnegan said opportunity for economic gain through military equipment sales is likely years down the road because of the high manufacturing costs Japanese companies face. “Nothing is going to change quickly; maybe in the long run, they can play a role in the international market,” he said. “It’s a very insular industry, and by its nature, it’s going to be expensive.”

So what's the future of the UAV market in South America? Expect it to grow, according to Phil Finnegan, director of corporate analysis with the Teal Group. A 2013 study of the global UAV market showed that Latin American countries spent US $71.1 million, a figure that will grow to $271.5 million in 2022. Over that decade, Latin American nations will spend around $1.7 billion on unmanned systems. That market has been "heavily dominated" by Israeli companies, but as the Pentagon enters a period of budget reduction, US firms are starting to turn eyes south, Finnegan said, although that won't likely lead to displacement of Israeli industry. "US companies are going to be making a push in the area, but the Israeli companies have a strong lead, and especially in a place like Brazil, they have a strong domestic presence," Finnegan said.

Según afirman desde Teal Group, casa de análisis dedicada al sector aerospacial y de defensa, “el gasto en este sector se verá duplicado a lo largo de la próxima década, pasando de los 5.200 millones de dólares anuales que se destinan en la actualidad a 11.600 millones”. De hecho, se espera que en el cómputo global de los siguientes diez ejercicios se destinen cerca de 89.000 millones de dólares (66.000 millones de euros) a este ámbito. “El mercado de drones se está convirtiendo en un mercado cada vez más internacional a medida que crece”, afirmaba Philip Finnegan de Teal Group. Y es que, “este sector ofrece un servicio rápido, eficaz y amigable que ayuda a las empresas que se dediquen a la seguridad” señalan desde Siemens.

Philip Finnegan, director of corporate analysis at Teal Group, said the acquisition fits into Lockheed’s strategy of taking services it had sold to government agencies and finding new areas in the private sector to apply them. “What Lockheed is doing is taking its core expertise and looking at what are the potential markets that are growing,” he said.

Phil Finnegan, director of corporate analysis at the U.S. Teal Group aerospace defense consultancy, estimates the Middle East market for UAVs is currently worth around $260 million a year. He predicts this will total around $3.8 billion over the next decade, with the Middle East accounting for about 8 percent of the global UAV market. Teal estimates the global market for UAVs is likely to double from $5.2 billion to $11.6 billion by 2023. “In the international market, the Middle East is going to be very important in terms of size and for U.S. manufacturers,” Finnegan predicted.