The large, multiyear, single prime contract model is yielding to a small, short-term, multivendor model in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) command and control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) market. By 2017, spending will focus on maintenance and incremental upgrades to mature technologies.
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, US DoD C4ISR Competitive Analysis, finds that the market stood at $75.53 billion in 2012, and is expected to reduce to $45.00 billion in 2017.
C4ISR spending will be reduced through 2017, especially for research, development, testing, and evaluation (RDT&E). Though C4ISR spending will not be reduced as much as the overall defense budget, it will be negatively impacted by fewer platforms and troops.
“Reduced RDT&E will mean more reliance on mature and proven technologies and systems, with incremental upgrades that will leverage advances in commercial technology,” noted Frost & Sullivan Senior Industry Analyst Brad Curran.
Adoption of commercially successful IT technologies is enhancing DoD mission success in almost every C4ISR segment and technology area. The key IT enterprise technologies used include cloud computing, data analytics, mobile devices, and business and social networking applications.
“Cost savings, ease of integration and training, and frequent upgrades of these tools are driving more companies to participate in the DoD IT enterprise networks market,” added Curran. “In fact, cost-competitive, non-traditional defense firms that maintain a robust services capability will find steady contracting work through 2017.”
