1.The development history of military drones

The development of unmanned aerial vehicles can be traced back to 1917, when the Royal Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics combined aerodynamics, light engines and radios to develop the world’s first unmanned aircraft. Since then, the development of global military drones has roughly gone through the following stages: In the 1920s and 1960s, drones were mainly used as target drones, which was the initial stage of the development of drones; in the 1960s and 1980s, there were no Human reconnaissance aircraft and electronic UAVs have emerged on the battlefield, and UAVs have begun to enter the practical stage; since the 1990s, UAVs have been fully used in modern high-tech local wars, and UAVs are at a rapid pace. Rise and flourish stage.

Military UAVs have the salient characteristics of zero casualties, superior combat performance, and low cost. They have gradually become an indispensable and important weapon platform for modern warfare. The tasks they perform have shifted from aerial reconnaissance, battlefield surveillance, and support of manned fighter jets to suppression. The expansion of enemy air defense systems, the implementation of rapid ground strikes, and missile defense are gradually realizing the leap from auxiliary combat means to basic combat means.

The development history of civilian drones

The initial application of UAV systems was mainly in the military field. Since the 1990s, countries around the world have explored the application of UAVs in the civilian field. However, due to the difficulty of separating unmanned and non-unmanned control systems, the degree of automation is low and unmanned The development of aircraft in the civilian field has achieved relatively small results. After 2010, with the continuous improvement of automation and UAV reliability, UAVs have the conditions for miniaturization, intelligence, and low cost, and the civilian applications of UAVs are expanding rapidly. Not only are consumer drones widely popular, industrial drones have also developed rapidly in fields such as artificial weather modification, emergency industry, weather monitoring, patrol inspection, security monitoring, agriculture, forestry and plant protection, surveying and mapping, and geographic information.

2. Industry development and future development trends

With the advancement of aviation science and technology and the upgrading of the industrial system, unmanned aerial vehicle systems with various functions and performances continue to innovate and develop, which constitute the core competitive field and the direction of industrial competition for the development of weapons and equipment worldwide. In the military field, the development of unmanned combat equipment has entered a new stage, and the application of UAV systems has achieved remarkable results, becoming the strategic commanding heights of military technology powers; in the civilian field, UAV systems have penetrated into many application scenarios in different industries , Bred large-scale industrial application and industrialization, and became the most dynamic growth area of ​​the world aviation industry in the future.