Collected statistics show a significant decline in the civilian segment of the drone market in 2024. This became known at the AERONEXT 2024 Drone Aviation Development Forum from a presentation by the management of the Aeronext Association. At the same time, along with a decrease in the volume of work performed using UAVs, the number of flights officially registered by the State Air Traffic Management Corporation increased: from 105 thousand in 2023 to almost 137 thousand in 2024. In other words, UAVs fly less, but fly officially more often. 

The total revenue of companies in the civilian drone segment has increased significantly due to the production of products for defense purposes. As noted during the presentation by Gleb Babintsev, General Director of the Aeronext Association, about 50% of enterprises are engaged in such production.

Now, according to him, the civilian market is 10 times smaller than the volume of UAV production for the country's defense tasks. And in Russia, it is necessary to accelerate the growth of the civilian drone market to avoid social and production problems after the end of the Special Military Operation, when many qualified specialists will be left without work.

It is worth noting that Babintsev previously, at the end of 2023, during the international forum-exhibition "Russian Industrialist", was concerned that the mass training of drone operators was replacing the training of fundamental classical engineers needed for the long-term development of unmanned aviation. In his opinion,"there is a danger that today everything may come to simplification: instead of normal training, we are moving to some kind of hasty instruction".

As Babintsev noted then, drones are developing and will become more and more independent, will be able to rely on temperature sensors, icing and make their own decisions about landing and other actions that the operator will only check. Such a specialist, in his opinion,"...with this set of statistics and practice, he [the UAV operator, - ed. note] will become like a power plant operator: the green button is on - I sit quietly, the red button is on - I press the yellow one".

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