New Report on Commercial UAS Imagery and Information Markets

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Commercial UAS Imagery and Information Markets: Analysis and Forecast" report to their offering.

This paper's purpose is to:

• Portray an addressable U.S market for providers of imagery and information from UAVs in existing civilian federal, forestry, oil & gas, agriculture, law enforcement and other markets
• Illustrate the challenges and possible entry points for UAVs in the National Air Space (NAS). As such it relies heavily on analysis regarding incremental and expanding access to the NAS as well as existing and potentially addressable markets for UAV-derived information products. Eventually, without something akin to File and Fly within vast portions of the NAS these markets will slide to the right or fail to develop.

In an incremental and expanding approach to airspace integration, G2 Solutions forecasts imagery and information revenues from commercial UAS in the NAS to total $2.38 billion from 2013-2025.

Situation Analysis

• The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 instructs the FAA to release a proposed rule that will establish policies, procedures, and standards for a wide spectrum of users in the small civil, commercial, unmanned aerial system (UAS) community. These rules, when put into effect, will enable aerial imagery and aerial survey UAS data-collection operations.
• The FAA has been working under a Sept. 2015 mandate to open up major portions of the NAS to UAS operations. An important step in this process is the appointment of six UAS test ranges throughout the U.S., which are to develop certification and interoperability standards. G2 Solutions anticipates a phased introduction of UAS into the NAS, likely beginning with smaller UAS at lower operating altitudes.
• The FAA released its much-anticipated Request for Proposal (RFP): Unmanned Aircraft Systems Test Site Selection (UASTSS), for six operational UAS test sites within the United States with competition set to begin in the March/April, 2013 timeframe. Awards are expected to be announced in late September, 2013.
• Industry also awaits FAA guidelines on a more expansive set of rules for small UAVs, assumed to be in the 55 lb. or less MTOW. These guidelines should be released by end of calendar 2013.