by Brendan Bradley | 05/01/2025

Shortly after the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces, the hand-controlled first-person view (FPV) drone emerged as a critical delivery method for over-the-horizon anti-personnel and anti-tank munitions. In the hands of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, this force multiplier tool helped level out the asymmetrical conflict. Since then, both sides of the conflict have made heavy use of these small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to minimize troop casualties and extend the reach of their front lines.

Seemingly overnight, the drones deployed to warzones shrunk down from the 66-foot wingspan of the MQ-9 Reaper to a foot or two. Alongside this conversion, the embedded processors utilized for these vehicles changed from large central processing units (CPUs) to small-footprint microcontroller units (MCUs). This transition parallels a similar shift in the wider IoT market, with advancements in hardware capabilities combined with a desire for smaller footprints driving demand for MCU-based embedded devices. A segment of the market that was in the past serviced by solutions such as AWS (NASDAQ: AMZN) FreeRTOS, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Azure RTOS, and Siemens (FWB: SIE) Nucleus, these vendors have distanced (or divested) themselves from these use cases in favor of higher revenue opportunities that come from larger footprint devices.

While initially adapting commercial drones such as those from China-based DJI for military use, both the parties involved with the Russo-Ukrainian War as well as armed forces across the globe have turned to established aerospace & defense vendors for their FPV solutions. In the United States (US), the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL) has placed solutions from Easy Aerial, Flightwave, and Skydio on the Blue UAS list of approved unmanned aircraft systems. A repository of approved vendors from the Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), appointment to this coveted list requires adherence to both the American Security Drone Act of 2023 as well as National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). These regulations strictly ban components (including both software and hardware) from many foreign suppliers and manufacturers, with companies including Dahua Technology Company, Huawei Technologies Company, and ZTE Corporation explicitly prohibited by name.

With many leading competitors legally barred from participation in this emerging market, American vendors are offered an exclusive market opportunity to contribute components and solutions to these projects. As drone warfare continues to expand and mature, defense departments across the globe will demand higher performance, higher security operating systems for their devices. As such, experienced safety-critical vendors such as Green Hills Software and Wind River should seek to market and tailor their RTOS solutions to these MCU use cases, leveraging their experience in the wider UAS market. Green Hills’ win with Saab’s (NASDAQ: SAAB B) Skeldar UAV and Wind River’s success with Northrop Grumman’s (NYSE: NOC) X-47B unmanned aircraft prove the efficacy of these safety-critical RTOSs in real-world unmanned use cases. Solutions such as Green Hills’ µ-velOSity RTOS and Texas Instruments’ (NYSE: TXN) TI RTOS are well positioned to service the needs of this growing A&D submarket, with both companies commanding respect in global defense industries. The recently released but rapidly growing PX5 RTOS is also a suitable candidate for this market, custom-built to deliver secure capabilities in a small package.

For more information on the evolving landscape of the embedded operating system market, check out VDC’s recently published report, 2024 IoT & Embedded Operating Systems.