Consumer UAS will continue to grow but its most explosive growth is behind it. It is a much more mature market that has lost some of its novelty and technological innovations that will attract buyers are becoming fewer. Still, the market will continue to expand for several more years thanks to new technological developments and a wider range of product offerings. Moreover, there promises to be considerable crossover between the consumer and the commercial UAS markets. Some consumer drones are used for low-end commercial tasks such as real estate.

Lockheed Martin’s AN/FPS-117(V) is a fixed-site version of the tactical AN/TPS-59 air defense surveillance radar. The FPS-117 is deployed mostly in long-range national air defense networks. The AN/TPS-117 and TPS-B34 are transportable air defense radars developed from the FPS-117 and TPS-59, for international sale. In 2001, Lockheed Martin announced it was renaming the TPS-117 as the TPS-77 for international sales.

In January 2019, a new US Air Force commercial/defense consortium-led “prototyping” program was announced with the goal of deciding how to upgrade or replace hundreds of legacy Raytheon AN/ALQ-184 and Northrop Grumman AN/ALQ-131 ECM (Electronic Countermeasures) pods and other systems aboard USAF F-16s.

Though once expected to be totally replaced by the Lockheed Martin F-35, by 2018 the Air Force planned to keep the single-engined F-16 fleet flying, upgraded, and “relevant” up to 2048. The EW “prototype” program could ultimately lead to a fleet-wide electronic warfare upgrade for more than 900 USAF F-16s – worth as much as $9 billion.

Raytheon’s AN/APG-79 radar with an Active Electronically-Scanned Array (AESA) antenna was developed for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, for new builds and as a retrofit replacement for Raytheon’s AN/APG-73. It provides increased detection and tracking ranges versus the mechanically-scanned APG-73...