Study predicts rapid growth in production of drones

Published August 14, 2015 by Robert Powell, III

A Fairfax-based aerospace and defense market analysis firm expects worldwide production of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to reach $93 million in the next 10 years.

The Virginia firm, The Teal Group, said worldwide production of UAVs, also called drones, is $4 billion to $14 billion.

In addition to $93 billion spent on production, Teal said an additional $30 billion will be spent in 2025 over the decade on military UAV research.

“The market for UAVs looks very strong, increasingly driven by new technologies such as the next generation of unmanned combat systems, and the development of new markets such as civil and consumer drones,” Philip Finnegan, Teal Group's director of corporate analysis and an author of the study, said in a statement.

Teal’s 2015 UAV study calculates  that 72 percent of the UAV market is military, 23 percent is consumer and 5 percent civil customers.