Despite all the publicity that American UAS receive, the major exporter of UAS has been Israel. Between 2002 and 2012, Israel exported $4.7 billion worth of UAS, approximately twice as much as the US.Part of this was due to the US military demand for UAS in Iraq and Afghanistan, which was largely met by American suppliers. But there were also U.S. government restrictions on American UAS exports. These restrictions still exist, for political reasons, such as prohibition of weapons sales to a long list of countries, and security fears. These restrictions are becoming a major issue for US UAS manufacturers because Israel already has a head start as an exporter, and China (using copies of many Israeli and U.S. UAS) is catching up fast. The UAS market is expected to double to over $11 billion a year in the next decade and American firms have to export more in order to survive. The American military has cut purchases way back and will not be buying much for the next five years to come or more.
It’s understandable that the Israelis are leading exporters, as they developed most of the basic technology that made the best-selling American models like Predator and Raven possible. Israel kept developing UAS tech after successful American designs appeared. As a result of this trend, in the last decade nations have found that if they wanted American style UAS very often they were unable to buy American for whatever reason but the Israelis probably had whatever they needed, with less restrictions and often at a better price.
Israel has UAS similar in capabilities to many of the US made ones, and in many cases the Israeli versions were there first. But that won’t do much good with the Chinese closing in. Both the US and Israel are nervous about Chinese entry into the UAS market. The Chinese stuff is often copied or stolen tech and usually not as effective or reliable. But it’s cheaper and they will sell anything to anyone who can pay.
The Chinese pay more attention to Israeli UAS and sales methods than those of the United States. Israel exports 80 percent of its UAS and has customers in fifty countries. Unlike the United States, Israeli UAS can operate within Israel and are heavily used by the Israeli military. This gives Israeli UAS the “combat proven” seal of approval.
Source: iHLS