Small UAS | How Affordable Drones Have Broken the Mold

Research evidence excerpt

Small UAS | How Affordable Drones Have Broken the Mold

I N D U S T R Y N O T E

J u n e 1 7 , 2 0 2 6

Industrial Software & Defense Tech

CONCLUSION Clarke Jeffries

We anticipate one of the biggest lessons of the 2020s will be how affordable drone Sr. Research Analyst, Piper Sandler & Co.

technology fundamentally reshaped the modern combat environment and set the stage 503 275-8318, clarke.jeffries@psc.com

for a reevaluation of the procurement, organization and strategy of ~$3T in annual global

military expenditures. While drones have existed in the modern military apparatus for Related Companies: Share Price:

decades at this point, it was the Ukraine war (as one of the first near-peer conflicts in AVAV 167.11

PLTR 130.63recent memory) which provided demonstrable evidence of how specifically lightweight and

affordable systems could change the paradigm of combat. In this piece we profile Group 1-3 INDUSTRY RISKS

UAS and the capabilities across nine public and nineteen private companies and discuss Subject to procurement demand by the U.S. and

what the future of drone innovation might hold as real autonomy-first procurement decisions allied nations for defense equipment, solutions

take hold. We anticipate this is only the beginning. and services.

• Democratizing asymmetric warfare; sUAS has redefined the rules of engagement.

Much of modern military history has been the story of haves and have-nots, with 10

countries accounting for 72% of global military spend and dominating production of

the most capable and exquisite systems. Drone technology however (and specifically

small unmanned aircraft systems: sUAS) has vastly increased the accessibility and

affordability of highly capable military equipment and subverted the advantage of using