Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) have plenty of applications for government agencies or drones in common parlance. From creating 3D models of large mountains to helping in disaster recovery and firefighting missions, UAS has been top of mind for forward-thinking programs and any customers looking to reduce costs and improve safety. And thanks to recent regulatory advancements, it is becoming easier for government programs and commercial entities to derive benefit from integrating drones into their operations.

We talked about these issues and more in a recent Public Spend Forum webinar, hosted by Ash Bedi. Beginning with an overview of the basic applications in the military and homeland security space, Ash also covered the civilian space and disaster response applications. And the government agencies pursuing UAS are in varying stages of their journeys. Maybe it’s a purchase of hardware or maintaining an existing fleet; for others, the needs can lend themselves more to an “as-a-service” delivery where the drones are owned by a full solution provider.

Through our research into this exciting government market, we’ve actually segmented the UAS industry into 9 major segments, which Ash covered in the webinar. Within those segments, we can map over 2,400 UAS suppliers to one of those categories, which we’ve done through our market mapping.

 In order to help interested agencies in their journey to acquire drones and UAS, Ash demonstrated how GovShop, our market research tool for the public sector, can be used to quickly and easily search for suppliers across those nine categories. GovShop is easy to use and can be searched in three ways: keywords, contract vehicles, and category codes. We have created an entire market category devoted to UAS and the nine categories within our market map: 

1. Full Solution Providers
2. Communication Equipment
3. Software
4. Accessories
5. Ground Control Equipment
6. Maintenance & Repair
7. Training & Support Services
8. Payloads
9. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Check out this recorded webinar for a deeper dive into how you can use GovShop to source government contractors who provide UAS and related services for all your drone needs!