The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has moved to begin the opening of US airspace to commercial operations with the issuance of the first rules for the operation of commercial drones in national airspace. Over the past several years the FAA has shown increasing flexibility in working to open airspace to UAS.

The Part 107 rules, which went into effect in August 2016, are the latest indication of the new FAA attitude. The rules specify a series of criteria that must be met before small UAS can undertake commercial operations. Small UAS is defined as systems that are 55 pounds and under.

Teal Group's most recent UAS sector study, World Civil Unmanned Aerial Systems Market Profile & Forecast 2017, reports on numerous key findings, including: 

• In terms of aerospace, the market for civil UAS promises to be one of the most dynamic growth sectors for the next decade, expanding from a $2.8 billion market in 2017 to more than quadruple to $11.8 billion by 2026. Over the next ten years the market totals almost $74 billion.
  
  
• Although consumer systems represent about half of the overall market through the decade, the fastest growth comes from commercial systems, which surpass consumer systems in 2024 and continue to widen the lead throughout the rest of the forecast period.

The joint Australian/U.S. Nulka (an aboriginal word meaning “be quick!”) active missile decoy has been produced for most major U.S. Navy warships, integrated into the AN/SLQ-32(V) electronic warfare system. The first installation began in 1994. It has now also been integrated into the SSDS (Ship Self Defense System). Nulka has been installed on the CG-47, DDG-51, FFG-7, LSD-41, and LSD-49 classes, with installation on nine CVNs beginning in FY14. Canada and Australia also operate Nulka. More than 1,000 Nulka decoy payloads have been delivered to the US and Australian Navies.

More than 10,000 AN/APR-39s have been produced over the past 50 years, but production slowed with planned new generations of integrated EW suites for helicopters – last century – including the US Army’s SIRFC and ATIRCM.

The deployment of AH-64A Apaches to Kosovo as early as 1999 showed that Apache pilots “had lost confidence” in the APR-39. The Apaches never went into battle, in large part due to the perceived inadequacy of the ECM suite. Again in 2001 in Afghanistan, Army pilots expressed little faith in the APR-39. The Army anxiously awaited the next generation of helicopter EW.