Overview of the optoelectronic pod industry

The development history of photoelectric pods

An optoelectronic pod is a kind of mission payload equipment installed on an aircraft (manned aircraft or unmanned aerial vehicle), or other aviation platforms, mainly used to collect optoelectronic (such as infrared, visible and laser) signals.

Photoelectric pod technology is an organic coupling technology of optical imaging and electronic equipment adapted to specific tasks. The research is not limited to reducing the weight, power consumption, cost, and volume of the device; Improve the quality and quantity of sensors; Stability, initiative, full-process automation, and flexibility of multi-payload imaging; Alignment and fusion of multi-source data, effective storage and efficient transmission.

Introduction to the types of photoelectric pods

According to the range of the UAV, the photoelectric pod can be divided into ultra-short-range UAV (50km) pods, short-range UAV (50km~300km) pods, medium-range UAV (300km~1,000km) pods, long-range UAV (more than 1,000km) pods, etc.

The optoelectronic pods of short-range aircraft generally need to meet the ISR (intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance) capabilities, and the airborne optoelectronic pods of medium-range and long-range aircraft generally need to have weapon targeting and guidance functions.

Therefore, short-range UAV pods pay more attention to integration, miniaturization and lightweight, while medium-range and long-range UAV pods pay more attention to range and multi-task capabilities. Compared with long-range UAVs, the value of short-range UAVs is low, but because short-range unmanned reconnaissance aircraft can be deployed in a large number of small-scale combat detachments to perform battlefield reconnaissance and surveillance tasks, and timely and accurately understand the situation of the frontier battlefield, the market demand capacity in the future may be greater.

｜光电吊舱核心技术

无人机与光电吊舱的结合，特别是四光吊舱(包含可见光、红外热成像、广角和激光测距技术)的应用，为无人机提供了强大的侦察和测量能力。

Optoelectronic pod hardware concerns

Integration: The four-light pod needs to integrate visible light, infrared thermal imaging, wide-angle and laser ranging technologies to achieve a multi-functional integrated design to improve the reconnaissance and measurement capabilities of UAVs.

Stability: The pod needs to adopt advanced stabilization technology to effectively isolate the disturbance of the drone body and maintain the stability of the boresight, so as to ensure the stability and clarity of the image.

Adaptability: The pod needs to adapt to different light conditions and weather conditions, both during the day and at night or in bad weather.

Durability: The pod needs to be made of materials that are resistant to high temperatures, corrosion, and impact to ensure that its structure can work properly in harsh environments. At the same time, the structural design of the pod also needs to take into account the ease of installation, maintenance and dismantling to ensure that it can work reliably for a long time.

The market size of the photoelectric pod

The increasing demand for battlefield awareness in the field of defense and security and the efficiency improvements brought about by technological advancements are the major drivers for the strong growth of the optoelectronic market. According to the data published by Markets and Markets, the global optoelectronic equipment market is expected to grow at a compound growth rate of 5.0% from 2020 to 2025, and the market size will grow from US$41.4 billion to US$52.7 billion, of which the military optoelectronic equipment segment is expected to grow from US$9.7 billion in 2020 to US$13 billion in 2025, with a compound growth rate of 6.1%.

It is expected that the military market share in the Asia-Pacific region will grow the fastest in the future, mainly due to the increasing demand for optoelectronic equipment on the ground, ships and airborne platforms.

The total market size of domestic photoelectric pods in 2022 will be about 586 million US dollars, of which about 390 million US dollars will be in the military field.

Photoelectric pod industry chain

The upstream raw materials of the aviation optoelectronic pod industry mainly include photoelectric sensors, optical lenses, image processors, optical fiber and cables, circuit boards, structural parts, etc. The downstream was the first and mainly used in the military field, used for reconnaissance, surveillance, target tracking, fire guidance and other tasks. At present, the application field has been expanded to civil use, such as environmental monitoring, fire rescue, geological exploration, scientific research, medical diagnosis and other fields.