Maria Wiggins
The non-military drone market will grew two-fold over the next decade to reach the size of $14.3 billion worldwide with Chinese manufacturers dominating the market, a study report revealed last Wednesday, whereas officials in the United States are still have concerns over national security risks arising from use of those drone.
The market is estimated to be reaching $4.9 billion this largely because of a continuing opening of U.S. airspace by Federal Aviation Administration and more of its use by commercial industries that has been increasing, unveiled the report by Teal Group, an aerospace analysis company.
The analysis came at a time when the United States and private U.S. companies are increasingly concerned about the security as they are in thoughts that Chinese-made drones could be used by Beijing for collecting footages and sensitive data.
In the commercial and consumer drone markets worldwide, about 75% of the units came from the Chinese manufacturers, said Phil Finnegan, an analyst at Teal Group who authored the study.
The Department of Homeland Security, in a May notice reviewed by Reuters, has cautioned the U.S. firms about exposure of their data to the risks arising from the use of Chinese-made drones.
DJI, a Chinese manufacturer of Drones and center of the criticism for security concerns, called those concerns “false” and “misguided”, saying that its customers are in “full and complete” control of their data, said spokesman Michael Oldenburg in a phone interview.
The study unveiled that the industrial inspection is the leading market segment for drones including energy, mining and construction industries, who use these drones to survey transmission lines and sites among many other things. The second largest use of the drones is in agriculture sector where these have not only been used for spraying crops but also for analyzing the fields, the study said.
