The military radars market is projected to grow from USD 14.0 billion in 2020 to USD 17.4 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 4.4% during the forecast period. Increasing threats from high-speed missiles and aircraft have led to an increase in demand for military radars. Rise in the defense spending of emerging economies, growing regional tensions, and an increasing number of inter-country conflicts are major factors driving the military radars market. The increasing deployment of ballistic and stealth missiles in active war zones has also led to a significant increase in the demand for military radars across the globe.
COVID-19 Impact on the Global Military Radars Market
Raytheon Technologies Corporation (US), Lockheed Martin Corporation (US), Israel Aerospace Industries (Israel), Thales Group (France), and Leonardo S.P.A. (Italy) are some of the leading players operating in the military radars market. These players have spread their business across various countries includes North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa, and South America. COVID-19 has impacted their businesses as well. Industry experts believe that COVID-19 could affect military radars production and services by 2–5% globally in 2020.
The rapid spread of COVID-19 in Europe, the US & Asia Pacific has led to a significant drop in demand for military radars globally, with a corresponding reduction in revenues for various military radars suppliers, service providers across all markets owing to late delivery, manufacturing shutdown, the limited staff at manufacturing facilities, and limited availability of equipment. As per industry experts, the global military radars demand is anticipated to recover by 2022 fully.
Military Radars Market Dynamics
Driver: Increasing Procurement of Radar and Air Defense Systems
Political instability and terrorism in Iraq and Syria in the Middle East have led to large-scale wars since 2014. High-end weapon systems such as missiles are increasingly being used in these wars by various terrorist organizations. Countries in this region are increasing their defense expenditure to safeguard their borders with new radar systems for defense against these weapons. Countries with increased spending on various radar and air defense systems in this region include Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. Saudi Arabia, for instance, has plans to buy the S-400 air defense systems from Russia in the future.
Increasing transnational disputes among various nations have increased the defense spending of nations to safeguard their borders. The tension between Russia and NATO has led to an increase in expenditure on air defense systems by countries such as Romania, Poland, and Ukraine. In October 2019, the Turkey government officials announced the procurement of S-400 air defense systems from Russia. Rising disputes in the South China Sea between China and its neighboring countries, such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Taiwan, Malaysia, and the Philippines, have led to a defense budget increase by these countries.
Restraint: High Manufacturing Costs
The manufacturing of military radars requires significant R&D funding. High costs are involved in incorporating these systems into defense networks of nations. Military radars have to be integrated with various fire control systems, command and control systems, missiles, and anti-aircraft guns. The launch and maintenance of these systems are also expensive. Thus, the high cost, as well as time required for the manufacture and deployment of these systems, prove to be a restraint in the growth of the market. In September 2019, the US Army awarded a contract worth USD 281 million to develop the Sentinel A4 radar system.
Opportunity: Requirement of New-Generation Air and Missile Defense Systems
The development of new-generation missiles with high-end technologies is a major threat to strategic locations and platforms, such as military airbase s and ships. Some of these new developments include nuclear-capable ballistic missiles and high-speed cruise missiles. Nuclear ballistic missiles have the ability to destroy various cities and lives.
Various nations are developing such advanced weapons capable of defeating high-end air defense systems such as the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS), Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3), and S-400.
Countries such as India, China, and Russia have developed hypersonic missiles that are difficult to intercept for missile shields. India and Russia have jointly developed the BrahMos missile, which is difficult to intercept by older missile defense shields. These developments have led to the requirement for new-generation high-speed air defense radar systems.
There is an increasing demand for technologically-advanced warfare systems from the defense forces. Governments worldwide are focusing on the development of stealth aircraft, but, at the same time, they are also investing heavily in advanced surveillance systems to counter stealth technology.
Several types of research have been undertaken on technologies such as quantum radars and their use for surveillance. According to an article published by China Daily in September 2018, quantum radars transmit subatomic particles, instead of radio waves, when searching for targets. They are not affected by radar-absorbent materials and low-signature designs. Traditional radar-jamming tactics cannot deceive these radars and, hence, can be adopted in missile defense and space exploration in the future.
Challenge: New Radar jamming Techniques
The introduction of various jamming techniques can seriously affect the performance of radars. Electronic jamming techniques, such as barrage jamming, sweep jamming, and spot jamming, lead to the blocking of certain frequencies. Digital Radio Frequency Memory Techniques (DRFM) led to the development of deceptive jamming techniques by creating false targets. Hence, modern radars have to be tested for jamming resistance in Radar Environmental Simulators (RES). These new radar-jamming techniques significantly increase the research and development cost of designing radar systems.
Major Aircraft and Ship Vessel Manufacturers to Adopt New Military Radars
The Active electronically Scanned Array (AESA) antennas segment is expected to be the largest market by value. The growth can be attributed to the due to increased use of AESA antennas due to their quick and easy functioning is driving this segment. The antenna consists of an array of small antennas, each with a separate feed. The beam is steered electronically by controlling the phase of the radio waves transmitted and received by each of the multiple radiating elements in the antenna.
Surveillance and Early Airborne Warning Radar Segment is Expected to Witness the Largest Market Share During the Forecast Period
Based on product type, the surveillance and early airborne warning radar segment is estimated to have the largest market share by value. Ongoing military modernization, replacement of obsolete radars, and introduction of digital signal processing and solid-state modules are additional factors expected to drive the surveillance and early airborne warning radars market during the forecast period.
The demand for technologically advanced early airborne warning radar systems is increasing as various major manufacturers from developed countries are developing carefully-shaped fighters which leads to a significant reduction in its detection range.
Multi-Band Segment is Projected to Witness a Higher CAGR
Multi-band radar signal processing is primarily conducted to improve signal resolution. A combination of different frequency bands is employed for a multi-band signal processing system. The growing demand for better radar signals is one of the major factors driving the adoption of multi-band radars. Recent developments in photonic technologies have enabled the multiband surveillance radars to explore applications that require high-precision.
Multiband radar system brings flexibility in surveillance activities by adapting to various criticalities on the field operations. A single beam source unit design for multiband transmitter and receiver is increasingly becoming prevalent among defense applications as it reduces complexities in production while reducing cost and the overall size at the same time. Such multi-band radar systems are proving to be more reliable when compared with other types of military radar systems. Multi-band radars are used for coherent detection and tracking of moving target objects.
Asia Pacific Market is Projected to Witness the Highest CAGR from 2020 to 2025
Asia Pacific is projected to be the highest CAGR rate for the military radars market during the forecast period. The growth of this region can be attributed due to the increasing investments in air defense systems to strengthen their combat zone systems and tackle threats. China and India are upgrading their surveillance and resource allocation abilities by upgrading their command and control networks. China is expected to drive the military radars market in Asia Pacific region. Countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, and Australia, who earlier invested in land forces, are now considering to increase their spending in the air-sea defense sector.
Raytheon Technologies Corporation (US), Lockheed Martin Corporation (US), Israel Aerospace Industries (Israel), Thales Group (France) and Leonardo S.P.A. (Italy) are some of the leading players operating in the military radars market.
