Military Aircraft Avionics Market - Global Industry Size, Share, Trends, Opportunity, and Forecast, 2021-2031

The Global Military Aircraft Avionics Market is projected to expand from USD 42.42 Billion in 2025 to USD 59.43 Billion by 2031, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of 5.78%. These systems encompass essential electronic equipment found on defense platforms, including communications, navigation, display management, and tactical mission execution tools. Growth in this sector is largely fueled by the urgent need to modernize aging fleets and rising geopolitical tensions, which generate a critical requirement for enhanced situational awareness and network interoperability. Consequently, defense organizations are compelled to invest heavily in upgrading their capabilities to ensure operational readiness within contested environments.

Highlighting the significant capital flowing into these technologies, the Aerospace, Security and Defence Industries Association of Europe reported a 13.8 percent increase in defense sector turnover, reaching €183.4 billion in 2024. Despite this positive financial momentum, market expansion faces a substantial obstacle in the form of the high costs and technical complexities involved in retrofitting modern avionics into legacy aircraft. These integration challenges often result in prolonged development timelines and budgetary limitations, potentially delaying the deployment of crucial upgrades.

Market Drivers

A primary catalyst for the avionics sector's growth is the global expansion of defense budgets and military expenditure, as nations respond to heightened regional security threats by prioritizing financial allocations for air superiority and operational readiness. This fiscal increase provides necessary funding for advanced cockpit electronics, communication suites, and mission computers.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's April 2024 Fact Sheet, total global military expenditure rose by 6.8 percent to $2.44 trillion in 2023, ensuring sustained liquidity for avionics contracts and allowing defense departments to initiate long-term technology acquisition programs. The scale of this investment is further exemplified by the U.S. Department of Defense's Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Request, which allocated $61.2 billion specifically for aircraft procurement.

Simultaneously, the development and procurement of next-generation combat aircraft are driving rapid technological innovation, as modern aerial warfare requires platforms featuring sensor fusion, electronic warfare capabilities, and open systems architectures essential for fifth and sixth-generation fighters. These requirements force manufacturers to provide software-defined solutions that deliver both adaptability and resilience. The magnitude of this industrial demand is illustrated by the financial performance of major suppliers; for instance, BAE Systems reported in its Annual Report 2023 that its Electronic Systems sector achieved revenue of £5.8 billion. This underscores the heavy reliance on advanced electronic subsystems, ensuring that avionics remain a high-value component in military aviation strategies.

Market Challenges

A significant impediment to the growth of the Global Military Aircraft Avionics Market is the high cost and technical complexity involved in retrofitting modern avionics suites into legacy aircraft. Integrating advanced digital systems into airframes originally engineered for analog technology necessitates substantial customization, including extensive rewiring and structural modifications. These technical intricacies often lead to unanticipated compatibility issues and rigorous certification requirements, which inevitably prolong development timelines and inflate project costs. Consequently, defense agencies frequently encounter budget overruns that force the delay or reduction of modernization programs, thereby slowing the adoption rate of upgraded avionics across fleets.

This operational bottleneck endures despite substantial capital inflows into the broader defense sector. According to the Aerospace Industries Association, the aerospace and defense industry generated $995 billion in combined sales in 2024, marking a 4.2 percent increase from the previous year. Although this figure demonstrates the immense scale of available investment, the exorbitant expense of retrofitting means that a large proportion of these funds is consumed by integration and engineering costs rather than the procurement of additional avionics units. As a result, the market's potential for volume expansion is restricted by the financial and technical burdens associated with maintaining the relevance of aging platforms.

Market Trends

The market is being fundamentally reshaped by the widespread adoption of the Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA), which dismantles proprietary architectures that historically restricted defense agencies to single-vendor ecosystems. This paradigm shift mandates standardized interfaces, such as the Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA), to facilitate the rapid insertion of upgraded processors and mission systems without incurring costly platform redesigns. As militaries emphasize agility in contested environments, the demand for MOSA-compliant embedded computing has surged, benefiting suppliers that align with these standards. For example, Curtiss-Wright Corporation’s '2024 Annual Report', released in February 2025, noted a 17 percent increase in operating income to $225 million for its Defense Electronics segment, highlighting the financial growth driven by the procurement of these advanced, open-architecture solutions.

In parallel, there is a critical transition toward Software-Defined Radio (SDR) and cognitive communication architectures, motivated by the need for secure, jam-resistant data exchange during multi-domain operations. With adversaries enhancing their electronic warfare capabilities, defense forces are moving away from hardware-centric radios in favor of flexible, software-programmable solutions capable of dynamically altering waveforms to evade detection and interference. This technological pivot secures robust network interoperability and high-speed connectivity across allied fleets. Reflecting this trend, Elbit Systems reported in its 'Third Quarter 2025 Results' press release in November 2025 that its C4I and Cyber division achieved a 14 percent revenue increase, a growth trajectory primarily attributed to accelerating sales of advanced radio systems and command and control technologies.

Key Players Profiled in the Military Aircraft Avionics Market

• L3Harris Technologies, Inc.
• RTX Corporation
• Lockheed Martin Corporation
• Northrop Grumman Corporation
• Thales Group SA
• BAE Systems PLC
• Honeywell International Inc.
• Elbit Systems Ltd.
• Genesys Aerosystems
• Cobham Limited

Report Scope

In this report, the Global Military Aircraft Avionics Market has been segmented into the following categories:

Military Aircraft Avionics Market, by Aircraft Type:

• Fixed-wing Combat Aircraft
• Fixed-wing Non-Combat Aircraft
• Helicopters
• Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)

Military Aircraft Avionics Market, by Subsystem Type:

• Flight Control System
• Communication System
• Navigation System
• Monitoring System

Military Aircraft Avionics Market, by Region:

• North America
• Europe
• Asia-Pacific
• South America
• Middle East & Africa

Competitive Landscape

Company Profiles: Detailed analysis of the major companies present in the Global Military Aircraft Avionics Market.

Available Customization

The analyst offers customization according to your specific needs. The following customization options are available for the report:

• Detailed analysis and profiling of additional market players (up to five).

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