Military communications spending is expected to exceed $35 billion by 2024, said Strategy Analytics.
Spending on radios, communications satellites, VSAT terminals, and other systems will grow at CAGR of 3.4 percent.
Trends driving spending on the military communications sector will be network-centric IP-based communications across radios, communications satellites, VSAT terminals, datalinks, networks and other systems, said Strategy Analytics.
North America will be the largest regional end market, but will be superseded from 2016 onward by demand from the Asia Pacific region.
Land-based communications will represent the largest market both in dollar terms as well as in terms of total shipments.
“In terms of systems, spending in the military communications sector will be dominated by satellite communications, comprising space-based satellite systems as well as the ground-based satellite terminals,” said Eric Higham, North American Director for ADS.
Military communications are moving towards systems that can operate across multiple modes and bands with an increasing emphasis on IP-centric communications that support data as well as voice communications.
“This will drive towards communications systems underpinned by enabling technologies that can support broadband performance, higher frequencies and digitization,” said Asif Anwar, director at Strategy Analytics.
There will be continued spending on military radios. Asia Pacific region will drive spending on tactical radios particularly for land-based communications and account for the largest end market over the entire forecast period.
Land-based radios will represent the largest market in terms of both dollar and total shipments. The total number of radio shipments is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 3.5 percent through 2024 to reach 172,867 units.
While traditional HF, VHF and UHF radio frequencies will maintain use, there will be an increasing emphasis towards systems that can support multi-band and/or wideband operation. The market for these radio systems will account for 47 percent of the total global military radio market in 2024.
Handheld radios will drive the volume in the land-based military radio market, which will grow to $6.5 billion. The associated market for radio component technologies will grow from $710 million to almost $1.1 billion with GaN (gallium nitride) becoming an established technology as it grows at a CAGR of 32.7 percent.
Continuing demand for satellite communications will translate to continued spending on military satellite terminals. North America is estimated to have the largest demand, but will be superseded by spending from the Asia-Pacific region from 2017 onwards. There will also be growth in demand from the other regions with spending in the MEA region expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.3 percent.
Land-based terminals will represent the largest market in dollar terms, accounting for 49 percent of the total market, and also represent the bulk of volume in terms of total shipments. The number of terminal shipments is forecast to reach over 8000 units.
