Rising Demand and Proliferating Supply of Military UAS

Gregory Sanders; Rose Butchart; Astrid Price; Dan Steinberg; Alexander Holderness

doi:10.5771/9781538170694

Summary

There has been a significant increase in the proliferation of military uninhabited aerial systems (UAS), as shown by an increase in total UAS and loitering munition arms transfers, which rose from 736 units in 2001–2010 to 1,734 units in 2011–2020. To better understand this development and the prominent role of UAS in recent conflicts, this report seeks to answer three key questions: (1) Which countries are driving the greater demand for UAS? (2) Where is the supply to meet the demand coming from? And (3) where does the U.S. industrial base stand in the face of such widespread and evolving proliferation of UAS?

Two case studies are vital to understanding the role of UAS in modern warfare: the Nagorno-Karabakh war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and the early stages of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. By analyzing these cases in addition to U.S. defense contracting and international UAS trends, the authors arrive at four main findings:

UAS and loitering munitions provide a wide range of capabilities to a growing range of states;

Ukraine has led the field in experimenting with such capabilities against a great power, but the future of UAS employment by frontline states is uncertain;

there are a growing number of suppliers of such capabilities, most notably China; and

the United States has increased its exports of UAS but primarily to trusted allies.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2023
ISBN-Print: 978-1-5381-7068-7
ISBN-Online: 978-1-5381-7069-4
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 60
Product type: Book Titles

1. Key Concepts No access
2. Roadmap No access
1. 1. Why Were UAS So Effective? No access
  2. Why Were UAS Given So Much Attention? No access
  3. Implications No access
1. 1. UAS in the Ukrainian Defense Industrial Base No access
2. UAS in Russia’s Push to Kyiv No access
3. 1. Implications No access
1. 1. Federal Acquisition, Other Transaction Authority, and the Commercial UAS Market No access
  2. Structure of the U.S. UAS Industrial Base No access
2. U.S. Exports No access
1. Arms Control Agreements and Regulations No access
2. 1. Major Exporters No access
  2. Major Importers No access
Discussion and Conclusions No access Pages 55 - 59
About the Authors No access Pages 60 - 60