The purpose of the enclosed dossiers is to characterize the American unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) industry. This industry consists of over four dozen "prime contractor" (makers/integrators of entire air vehicles or UAV systems) and a similar number of sensors, data links, engines, and other vendors, who are significantly, if not solely, invested in manufacturing UAVs for the military and civilian, foreign and domestic markets. Their products range in maturity from 'vaporware' (designs on paper or briefing slides only) to developmental hardware (nonproductionized flying prototypes) to production systems, ones currently on contract (Commercial Off The Shelf) or either awaiting or having completed one (Non Developmental Item). Besides the mainstream tactical UAV market (exemplified by PUI's Pioneer and Northrop Grumman Ryan's Hunter), specific products for niche markets are emerging within the industry:

• Man Portable, or Hand Launched, UAVs, (HLUAVs), such as AeroVironment's Pointer, BAI's Javelin, and Mission Technologies's Back Pack Mini, for special operations;
• Vertical Take Off and Landing UAVs (VTOL UAVs), such as Schweitzer's RoboCopter and Sikorsky's Cypher, for shipboard operations;
• Optionally Piloted Vehicles (OPVs), such as Aurora's Chiron and General Atomics's Pelican;
• Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs), such as AeroVironment's Black Widow, for urban warfare; and
• Endurance UAVs, such as General Atomics' Gnat and Predator and Teledyne Ryan's Global Hawk, for long dwell (24 hours or longer) surveillance or communications support.

The business development of UAVs in America has been left, in large part, by the major aerospace corporations to small, start-up companies or to foreign ones. Teledyne Ryan, producer of virtually all DoD UAVs (over 7000) until 10 years ago, is the exception that proves the rule: Although among the top 100 DoD contractors in Fiscal Year 1996, it ranked 99th, doing one percent of the business done by the company in first place, Lockheed Martin. Why the major players are loathe to pursue UAVs is due to a combination of factors, such as:

• DoD interest in UAVs has been both cyclic (Vietnam and now) and limited in application (target drones and reconnaissance).
• US aerospace companies see little profit in UAVs, which typically are ordered in small numbers, are low-price vehicles, and compete with their more lucrative manned offerings for the same mission.
• FAA regulations severely restrict UAV operations and training, promulgating the mindset of UAVs being less responsible users of airspace and limiting their employment.

Despite these factors, interest in UAVs is currently on the rise again in America. What accounts for the resurgence of interest in UAVs, largely dormant since the closing years of Vietnam?

• A new level of technology is now widely available, specifically in the areas of higher bandwidth comsat transponders for wide area data links at video data rates and
  increasingly powerful small computers, which, with the Global Positioning System (GPS), allow increased mission flexibility, accuracy, reliability, and autonomy.
• A political climate more demanding of zero personnel losses as a condition of committing US forces in contingencies; and
• Lessons relearned during the Persian Gulf War that dirty, dangerous, dull missions should best be delegated to unmanned vehicles.

In many ways, the current American UAV industry resembles the fledgling aircraft industry of 1920's America--a large number of small, independent, recently formed companies, each vying for a share in a dawning, potentially lucrative market. Now, just as then, government support will be crucial to ensuring America's UAV industry not just survives into, but flourishes during the coming century.

See UAV Industry for a depiction of the size of U.S. UAV companies.

See UAV Companies Map for the locations of UAV companies in the U.S.