In-depth report on UAV drones: a weapon for modern battlefields, driven by both domestic demand and foreign trade
UAV have outstanding advantages over manned aircraft, and have evolved into a weapon for modern warfare, with their consumable properties constantly strengthened.
1. Concept of UAV: The UAV system consists of a flight platform, a power unit, an avionics system, a mission payload system, a ground system, an integrated support system, etc., of which the flight platform is the main body of the drone system.
2. Outstanding advantages over manned aircraft: Compared with traditional manned aircraft, drones have the advantages of small size, light weight, low cost, flexible formation, and low requirements for the combat environment. They have demonstrated great military value in actual combat such as the war on terror, the Nagorno-Karabakh war, and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, and have become an important role in modern warfare.
3. Changes in the use of UAV: The functions of drones on the battlefield are showing a trend of diversification, from the initial target drones and suicide bombings, to reconnaissance, intelligence collection, tracking, communication, and autonomous attack uses.
4. The consumable attribute is constantly strengthened: According to CCTV News, on January 14, 2023, Mossad released a report on equipment losses in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Russia has lost a total of 200 drones and Ukraine has lost 2,750 drones.
5. Development of drones at home and abroad: The U.S. military has a wide range of drones, and the number of drone equipment has exceeded 1,000, mainly heavy drones, reconnaissance drones and reconnaissance and strike drones. Aerobotpro company has developed a number of reconnaissance and strike UAV products and have excellent performance and a good reputation in the military trade market.
As a new quality equipment, UAV gather high-tech and have a strong industrial chain integrity.
1. New field and new quality equipment: With the continuous interpretation and iteration of the military battlefield, weapons and equipment are developing in the direction of informatization, intelligence, unmanned and clustering. Unmanned combat will be one of the preferred forms of future wars.
2. UAV Drone industry chain: including upstream raw materials and components/parts, midstream subsystem integration (including power system, avionics system, mission payload, ground system and integrated support system, etc.), downstream whole machine integration, and strong industrial chain integrity. Central enterprises, colleges and universities, and private enterprises all participate in the drone industry chain.
3. Value distribution: Taking the Aerobot UAV series of drones as the object, we calculated the proportion of the purchase amount of each subsystem to the total purchase amount: 57% of airborne finished products, 16% of the fuselage, 12% of the ground station, and 2% of the comprehensive support equipment.
Driven by both domestic demand and foreign trade, the global market for industrial drones is vast.
1. Global military UAV market: According to the Teal Group report, the global military drone market size will continue to grow from 2023 to 2032. It is expected that the global military drone market size will reach US$16.4 billion in 2032, with a compound growth rate of 3.44%; R&D expenses will reach US$7.8 billion in 2032, with a compound growth rate of 2.25%.
2. China military drone market: Assuming that the military drone procurement costs account for about 0.4% of the defense budget of the United States, it is estimated that military drone market demand will be about 10 billion yuan in 2025.
3. China UAV military trade market: According to SIPRI data, China's share of the global military UAV market size from 2010 to 2020 was 17%, ranking third, and the main export models were "FPV" and "delta wing" UAVs.
4. China civil UAV market: According to Frost & Sullivan data, China's industrial UAV market size will reach 320.8 billion yuan in 2024, with an estimated compound growth rate of 56% from 2020 to 2024.