Please note that this article is from Teal Group’s 2017 World Military UAS Forecast. The 2018 UAS market forecasts will be released as follows:
World Civil UAS Profile & Market Forecast -- mid-July 2018
World Military UAS Market Profile & Forecast -- mid-September 2018

In termsof worldwide military budgets, the unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) segment promises to be one of the most dynamic growth sectors, continuing the past decade’s rapid spending growth. The unclassified sector will continue to increase over the next decade, by about 36%, from current annual spending on RDT&E and procurement of about $9.6 billion in FY18 to about $13 billion in FY27. If operations and maintenance expenditures were to be added, these totals would be even greater.

Russia is still attempting to recover from the tumult of the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union. In contrast to the former Warsaw Pact countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic, Russia suffered from a far more serious and prolonged economic crisis, which in turn undermined attempts at military and industrial reform. This abated in recent years both due to an upturn in government revenues from oil exports as well as a rationalization of the tax system which has stabilized government revenues. Indeed, there has been enough of an increase in defense spending that the government announced some small but significant procurement efforts starting in the 2005 budget and continuing through the 2015 budget.

Strategy: Leonardo's management is continuing to work to change the corporate culture and improve the company's performance to reach levels achieved by European competitors. Its new industrial plan unveiled in February 2018 seeks to restart growth, improve financial performance and cut debt.

The business already has been restructured. Cost-cutting and divestitures of non-core businesses have improved profitability.To turn around the company, management has undergone repeated shakeups replacing many long-time managers.

Forecasting the size of the future UAV market is far more problematic, than in other areas of aerospace technology. There are several reasons for this. The most important is that UAVs are a revolutionary new technology. They are not an established technology (such as missiles, combat aircraft, etc.), where there are clearly defined requirements and established bureaucratic organizations that foster their procurement. While there has been a considerable amount of attention to UAVs in the press, and considerable experimentation with UAVs by many armies, there are still an enormous number of unanswered questions about the nature of UAVs and their operation that make any forecasting difficult.