The global surge in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) use in recent years has led to leaps in development and spending on sensors, radars, cameras, signals intelligence (SIGINT), detection, communications and attack capabilities included in their payloads.

Companies engaged in manufacturing payloads for their own UAVs or for upgrades of deployed aircraft are finding a ready market across a growing number of states. Visiongain calculates that the global UAV payload market—including weaponry, electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR), radars and lasers, intelligence sensors, communication devices, navigation sensors and detection sensors—will reach $2.9 billion in 2011.

Moreover, the pressure on manufacturers to produce payloads and sensors that are capable of delivering more advanced imagery, stronger processing power, higher-capacity storage solutions, intensified electronic warfare (EW) capabilities and sharper intelligence grows continuously. State buyers increasingly demand sensor systems that can provide more on-board autonomy, less burdensome weaponry and more sensitive intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) without an exponential jump in costs or weight. This remains the case for the medium- and long-term despite the fact that the use of payloads and subsystems to conduct ISR still dominates UAV deployment globally in the short-term.

Although the unmanned-system payload market is naturally constrained by the development and direction of UAV size, weight and power (SWaP), Visiongain sees payload development outpacing vehicle development on a technological level. In terms of sale volumes, the use of multiple sensors and the stocking of substitute sensors for changes on the field divorce the respective unit sale figures of sensors and their carriers.

Indeed, over the longer term, payload manufacturers—particularly at the higher end—must continue to struggle to meet the key unique selling point of UAVs, that is to say their ultimate expendability, while meeting demand for more advanced technology and suppressing costs. Visiongain believes this will remain a determinant of the size of UAV payload market—and the UAV market itself—going forward.