Battlefield Management Systems Market - Growth, Trends, And Forecast (2020 - 2025)

The battlefield management systems market is anticipated to witness a CAGR of more than 5%, during the forecast period.

- Modern military systems are heavily reliant on complex software and interconnectivity to perform their missions. Advanced features, such as an electronic attack, sensor fusion, and communications, of the cyber-enabled military systems provide a tactical edge to the equipped armed forces against an adversary force or during critical operations in a hostile environment. The emergence of sophisticated weapon systems has necessitated the adoption of advanced battlefield management systems to facilitate decision-making and mission-critical coordination across all end-user platforms.
- However, the market may be deterred by the design challenges faced by system integrators to incorporate advanced features in their product portfolio while minimizing the associated weight and size of the system. Though the pricing of the system is highly dependent on the integrated features, cross-compatibility with sensors and subsystems from other system manufacturers are still limited due to design complexities. Furthermore, the rapid technological disruption may also result in a feature under development being rendered obsolete even prior to integration into the system, escalating the financial risks for the market players.

Key Market Trends

Increasing Frequency of Joint Operations by Global Defense Forces

A battlefield management system assists the military forces to digitize their operations and enable the creation of a common platform for real-time dispersion of data for enhanced situational awareness, including hostile and blue force tracking, radio communications, planning, personnel, intelligence, local weather, and data from several other sources, to provide an edge on the battlefield. Global military powerhouses, such as the United States, United Kingdom, China, France, and Japan, are vying to achieve a profound reconceptualization of modern warfare techniques. The armed forces of every country are developing concepts for employing advanced capabilities in each warfare domain to gain a tactical advantage over its adversaries in the event of armed conflict. For instance, the United States has added two new domains of warfare, namely space and cyber, to the existent traditional warfare domains Ð land, sea, and air. The US military is aiming to fully exploit an innovative and synchronized approach to develop joint capabilities across all domains. On this note, the FY2021 defense budget of the US entails the allocation of USD 178 billion toward the adoption of integrated command and control technologies to support activities across sea, land, air, space, and cyberspace. The eight US cross-functional teams (CFTs) are envisioned to pursue R&D for technologies that can effectively support joint all-domain operations.

Asia-Pacific to Bolster Market Prospects During the Forecast Period

The strengthening of the strategic military alliances between the United States and several Asia-Pacific sovereign nations and subsequent reinforcement of military deployment and intervention have resulted in a complex scenario, urging rapid modernization of defense capabilities of regional countries, such as China, to safeguard their vested interests. To ensure combat readiness of existing systems, several weapon modernization programs are currently underway to effectively upgrade the capabilities of the regional armed forces for effectively responding to security threats and accomplish urgent, critical, and dangerous strategic missions. To address the evolving threats, major countries in the region are realigning their military strategies and organizational structures. Cutting-edge technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), quantum information, Big Data, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT), have resulted in the development of long-range precision, intelligent, stealthy or unmanned weaponry and equipment, radicalizing traditional warfare in favor of intelligence warfare. On this note, in 2018, China recorded a straight 11-year increase in its annual military expenditure. During 2018, the countryÕs annual military expenditure accounted for 49% of the total defense expenditure in the Asia-Pacific region. India is also adopting a joint operational policy to develop the much-required synergy between the army, navy, and the air force. The doctrine is envisioned to facilitate establishment of a broad framework of concepts and principles for joint planning and execution of operations across all the warfare domains. Similar initiatives are being deployed by other nations in the region to maintain territorial integrity and preserve national sovereignty. The modernization programs have resulted in the several contracts for integrating advanced battlefield management systems. In April 2018, Luerssen Australia awarded a contract to Saab AB for the Situational Awareness System (SAS) for the Royal Australian NavyÕs new Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPV). The contract encompasses the provisions for installation of SAS on the 12 OPV ships and is expected to last till 2030. Such developments are envisioned to drive the growth prospects of the market in focus, during the forecast period.

Competitive Landscape

The prominent players in the military sensors market are Raytheon Company, ASELSAN AS, L3Harris Technologies Inc., General Dynamics Corporation, BAE Systems PLC, and Saab AB, amongst others. Vendors are modifying their offerings to enhance current capabilities and introduce revolutionary features as a means to deliver value-added battlefield management solutions to end-users. This helps introduce low differentiated products at competitive pricing. Furthermore, a strategic collaboration between manufacturers is on the rise to develop sophisticated systems that conform to the design and performance specifications of the end-user defense forces. This is expected to benefit industry stakeholders during the forecast period.

Reasons to Purchase this report:

- The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
- 3 months of analyst support