A new Frost & Sullivan analysis estimates the Department of Defense’s spending on command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems could increase from $53.6B in 2019 to $58.5B over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 1.5 percent.
Frost & Sullivan said Thursday the Pentagon’s C4ISR spending will focus on information technology advances in cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
Brad Curran, aerospace and defense research analyst at Frost & Sullivan, said IT and C4ISR sectors are converging around machine learning, self-healing networks and data analysis aside from AI and cloud and that procurement will take up the largest spending share in the next four years, surpassing research, development, test and evaluation.
He noted that procurement will mostly focus on deployable tactical networks, manpack radio, anti-submarine warfare sensors, fixed surveillance systems, ship self-defense systems and naval IT networks.
“Further, the operations and maintenance department's spending will emphasize on service-wide communications, global early warning sensors and networks, cybersecurity, weather systems, and software/digital technology pilot programs,” Curran added.
According to the analysis, market participants should leverage growth prospects posed by steady growth in DoD’s C4ISR spending. Providers of command and control platforms must adapt to commercial technologies, while makers of surveillance and reconnaissance systems should apply AI and network sensors to enable situational awareness.
