The UAV Market is estimated to reach US$ 51.85 billion by 2025 from US$ 11.45 billion in 2016.

The increasing use of unmanned aerial vehicles in civil & commercial and military applications is one of the most significant factors expected to drive the growth of the UAV market. Improvements in flight control systems, owing to the development of sense and avoid technology, are expected to fuel the growth of the UAV market.

One of the key factor propelling the market growth for UAVs is its increasing adoption for commercial use by the end-user industries. As per the statistics revealed by FAA, the sale for commercial and hobbyists UAVs are expected to rise from 2.5 Mn in 2016 to 7 Mn in 2020. Moreover, the changing federal regulations are further anticipated to stimulate the growth for commercial UAVs. For instance, the US government recently introduced a program for intensifying testing of UAVs to accelerate the adoption of UAVs in the commercial sector.

The use of UAVs by the government agencies such as fire departments, police, emergency services etc. is constantly increasing. This could be used for various purpose including, search & rescue, crime scene analysis, traffic collision, reconstruction, surveillance, and crowd monitoring among others. Several countries are already using UAVs for law enforcement for instance, in 2016, the European Emergency Number Association and DJI started a project to train first responders in Europe. Also, New Whales police department has started using UAVs to fight against crime; Singapore police deployed UAV; as well as Boston police also bought several UAVs in 2017. Moreover, DJI partnered with the Menlo Park Fire Protection District to implement UAVs for emergency missions. Also in December 2017, LA Fire Department used UAVs while Skirball fire. The New York City Fire Department have also implemented UAVs in their operations. As on 2016, over 340 government departments were working with UAVs in US, which included majority of police departments. Recently, in January 2018, the US Police announced to deploy 18 UAVs statewide.

The global UAV market for the application is fragmented into Military & Defense, Retail, Media & Entertainment, Personal, Agriculture, Industrial, Law Enforcement, and Construction among others. The segmentation is based upon the adoption of UAV by different end-user industries for increased ROI. The military & defense application is the leading adopter of UAV. However, the law enforcement segment is also experiencing a high growth with its increased adoption of UAVs for varied application such as monitoring crime and search and rescue operations. Further, with the rise in adoption of UAVs by the construction industries for mapping and inspection, several companies are expanding their construction segment portfolio of UAVs. For instance, Airware acquired Redbird, a UAV software provider to Architecture, Engineering & Construction companies to further increase its presence in the construction sector.

The investments in UAV technology noticed a shift from hardware to software. Players in the market are more focused in providing comprehensive UAV solutions that demands new software systems. This brought companies seeking for advancements in technologies, techniques for chip manufacturing, and economies to scale to reduce the cost of UAV platforms and sensors. Some of the key players in the global UAV market includes General Atomics, DJI, 3DR, Yuneec, Parrot SA, Textron, Northrop Grumman and Insitu among others.