Who Are the Winners in the Global Stratospheric UAV Payloads Market?

Friday 19 May 2017, Amsterdam

This report, now available on ASDReports, "Global Stratospheric UAV Payloads Technology and Market Forecast to 2025”, an expert report on the future markets associated with an emerging class of extremely high-flying Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.

This forecast is written in two scenarios: the first forecasts today’s restricted airspace reality wherein governments tightly control and prohibit flight over the most developed nations that will be the most profitable customers. The second scenario forecasts the explosive growth in commercial profits that will be seen when those airspace restrictions ease enough to allow at least limited access above 60,000 feet over the most profitable markets in the Northern Hemisphere.

As always, that significant change from today’s reality will create winners and losers. Conventional, heavier-than-air UAV manufacturers will gain but not very much. Compared to the emerging class of lighter-than-air UAV builders, that small gain will seem like a loss and some of them will go out of business.

The markets will also see very different reactions to the easing of airspace restrictions. Commercial communication markets will experience huge annual growth rates, approaching 100% CAGR during this forecast’s period. Military, and especially scientific, markets will see far lower growth and even declines in some years. They will also sometimes be unable to compete for scarce UAV resources with the better-funded commercial competitors.