Israel’s aerospace industry is an innovative global hub for defense and commercial applications, with considerable operational experience and advanced technical skills. Israel’s defense industry is one of the largest arms sales exporters in the world and among the top five exporters of drones, with a total sales of over $2.4 billion between 2017 and 2020. The market has shown strong resilience to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The market will continue to evolve as global competition becomes increasingly aggressive and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies set new challenges for UAV defense vendors with more affordable solutions than the defense industry.

This report will explore the changing trends in Israel’s defense UAV industry as affected by the changing geopolitical landscape, economic turbulence, and developments in emerging military doctrines to confront modern battlefield challenges. It will investigate these changes and examine future directions for Israel’s defense UAV industry, taking into account global perspectives and contexts. A key component of the report is the investigation of new UAV concepts of operations (ConOps) that will have an impact on Israel’s military UAV array of platforms and services. It will also analyze the effect of these ConOps on global demands and markets. The report also examines different UAV sub-systems and services, from ISR sensors to AI services and data processing at the edge. With global tensions and the nature of warfare shifting towards hybrid models, tactical UAVs’ requirements are shifting. The goal of the study is to help firms identify the growth opportunities in this evolving market and formulate go-to-market strategies in light of dramatic geopolitical, economic, and other changes.