As recently published in Air-force Technology website, the figures for the global missile defense system market expenditure seem to continue rising. The trend shows that is expected a growth of 2.71% in comparison of 2011, forecasting a value of USD $19.8 billions for 2021.
The high demand of these kind of systems obeys to the increment of diverse threats that nations have to confront (both domestic and international menaces). These threats mobilize governments to develop more assertive defense programmes, being this trend leaded by North America and followed by Asian - Pacific countries. Regarding Europe, missile defense programmes are expected to decrease in number and expenditure due to the economic and financial crises that makes some nations to cut their defense budget.
Some of the most important developments in the industry that are mentioned in the article are the smokeless missile system (the "Multiple Effects Rocket System" created by the UK, prevents the enemy to locate the source of fire); the anti-aircraft carrier missile system (missiles that can be launched from mobiles platforms, developed by Taiwan in response to the new Chinese aircraft carrier); and an outer space-intercepting missile system (developed in many countries such as China and India, that permits to destroy missiles out of the atmosphere). Furthermore, new materials are being consider to build more powerful and precise targeting systems ("High Density Reactive Material", project under development of the US Office of Naval Research).
To sum up, even though some nations are facing the worst part of a global economy crisis, governments are conscious of the great importance of missile defense systems; so in that sense we can understand how the demand of these kind of systems are rising and missile programmes are being developed with such an emphasis all over the world.
Source:
air-force technology portal http://www.airforce-technology.com/features/featuremissile-design-top-trends-for-a-market-set-to-soar/
