Brenda Marie Rivers
Forecast International has predicted that fighter aircraft manufacturers will produce a total of 3,401 jets from 2019 to 2028 and estimated that industry's overall production value will hit $264.2B by the end of the 10-year forecast period.
The production volume represents a 17.2 percent increase compared with the previous decade, when companies built an average of 290 combat aircraft annually, the research company said Tuesday.
Lockheed Martin is projected to dominate the market through 2028 as the U.S. and international defense organizations plan to order F-35s for their tactical fighter fleets. The F-35 program's share of the market is on track to reach 45.5 percent.
The report also found the outlook for Lockheed's F-16 and Boeing's F-15 and F/A-18E/F Super Hornet platforms will continue to improve and aircraft orders from customers across the Middle East will help Boeing, the Eurofighter consortium and Dassault sustain respective production lines.
"Russian- and Chinese-built fighters only occasionally compete with Western-built fighters in the international market, so the impact of new Russian or Chinese fighters on Western manufacturers is usually small in any given year," said Douglas Royce, senior aerospace analyst at Forecast International.Â
The research firm estimated that production will peak from 2021 to 2022 at 371 aircraft and decline by 2027 to 313 aircraft.
China is projected to establish markets in Asia and Africa for lightweight fighter jets that may be cheaper than U.S. and Russian counterparts, the report added.
