Top Drone Manufacturers of 2022: What’s Changed?

Earlier this month, drone research company DRONEII published their annual report of top drone manufacturers.  While some things stayed the same – DJI is still the world’s biggest drone manufacturer – there have been some noticeable changes since last year’s report, and there are likely to be even more changes in 2023.

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The top 3 places in the manufacture of civilian drones were:

1. DJI (China)
2. Parrot (France)
3. Skydio (U.S.A.)
4. XAG (China)

That’s a shift from last year, when large agricultural drone manufacturer XAG took the number 3 spot.  Skydio is the only US-based manufacturer in the top 5, jumping 2 places this year.  They’ve made major progress in a short time, since introducing their very first drone in 2018.    Since then, the company has received more than 200 million in funding, grown their manufacturing base, and developed a number of new aircraft for both civilian and military use.

The change may be even greater next year.  Drone fleets change slowly, with many hobbyists and commercial users buying new aircraft only every several years.

The U.S. continues to dominate the list of dual-use drone manufacturers:

1. Aerovironment
2. Insitu
3. Anduril
4. Aeronautics (Israel)
5. Schiebel (Austria)

While Aerovironment and Boeing subsidiary Insitu are well-known players in the space, Anduril – founded in 2017 by Oculus Rift designer and entrepreneur Palmer Luckey – has jumped into the list as a new player.  Anduril makes both counter UAS and UAS systems, including the Ghost single-rotor, powered by Lattice OS.

As military use continues to gain momentum, Anduril was one of 5 new players to make it into the top 15 on the list of dual use manufacturers.  This is in stark contrast to the civilian side, where there was only 1 new entrant to the top 15 spots on the list of civil drone manufacturers.

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