Aviation Week magazine predicts an explosive rise in the popularity of attack drones. In their new report 2021 Military Fleet & MRO Forecast, analysts of the publication compared the popularity of existing drones, indicating that in the future their number will only increase.
"The relatively minor six-week clash between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the disputed region of Nagorno — Karabakh in the second half of 2020 not only reinforced the usefulness of these systems, but also demonstrated how even armed forces that do not have good funding or technological development are able to manage them with devastating effect," the report says.
The most popular families of attack drones
Image source: aviationweek.com
According to Aviation Week, the most popular family of attack drones is the Predator from the American company General Atomics — 54% of the entire fleet of combat drones in the world. The second place is taken by Chinese "Pterodactyls": the Wing Loong family has 17% of the market. Next are the Chinese " Rainbows — - representatives of the Cai Hong family (CH-3 and CH-4) have a total of almost 8%. In fourth place is Turkey's Bayraktar with 7%, followed by Iran's Mohajer with 4%. The remaining strike drones account for 8% of the market.
