South America Drone Market 2026 Forecast

Brazil carries the most extensive named buyer record among the five countries in the sources gathered for this page, split between the Army, the Navy and a fast-growing civil agricultural sector. Shephard Defence Insight values the Brazilian uncrewed aerial vehicle market at US$631.67 million, with the Army forecast to spend US$279.15 million on UAVs from 2026 against a Navy forecast of US$227.51 million, and 84% of that combined figure, US$533 million, allocated to procurement programmes not yet awarded. On the buyer side, the Army's Centro de Aquisicoes contracted HBR Aviacao for R$2.46 million in Matrice 400 drones in February 2026, stating the equipment would support border monitoring, anti-trafficking operations, environmental enforcement and Law and Order Guarantee (GLO) missions, and separately selected XMobots' Nauru 1000C, a Category 2 SARP, for border surveillance. The Navy operates through its Directorate of Aeronautics, which signed a R$50 million technical-cooperation agreement with XMobots in January 2026, part-funded by state oil company Petrobras, to extend Nauru-family drones to ships and offshore platforms.

Colombia's named buyers sit almost entirely on the security side. The Ministry of Defence announced a National Anti-Drone Shield programme in January 2026, to be implemented by the Armed Forces, the National Police and a newly created Drone and Anti-Drone Group inside the ministry, and separately opened a competitive counter-UAS procurement that invited more than 100 companies from 21 countries to trial detection and interdiction systems. No figure for the scale of prior drone attacks or prior counter-drone purchases was found in the sources fetched for this page, so this page states the current programme's own terms rather than the threat history cited around it elsewhere.

Chile's named buyers sit mostly on the civil side. Formation Environmental SpA holds DGAC Air Operator Certificate No. 2075, one of the certifications the regulator's DAN 151 and DAN 91 rules make possible for mining, agriculture and environmental-management operations, according to Chilean mining trade press. On the military side, Chile's armed forces ordered Hermes 900 unmanned aircraft from Israel's Elbit Systems in a deal reported worth several tens of millions of dollars, announced in June 2011 for coastal surveillance and reconnaissance; no more recent named Chilean military drone procurement was found in the sources fetched for this page. Argentina's most recent named military buyer record is older still: the Argentine Air Force contracted three Yarara tactical UAVs from domestic manufacturer Nostromo Defensa under a March 2011 contract for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance training; no 2026-dated Argentine military drone procurement record was found in the sources fetched for this page. Peru's named buyer record is thinner again: no named military, police or counter-narcotics drone procurement programme was found in the sources fetched for this page, though analyst estimates covered later on this page size Peru's 2023 military drone spending at US$54.33 million.

Brazil's National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) regulates civil drone use under RBAC-E No. 94, in place since 2017 and stated by the agency to be complementary to rules set by the Department of Airspace Control (DECEA) and the telecoms regulator ANATEL. ANAC is replacing that weight-based rule with RBAC-100, an overhaul the agency has described as necessary because "the increasing number of special scenarios and operational requirements, exemptions and new technological developments have required a major, conceptual overhaul of the rules." The new framework adopts SORA, using versions 2.0 and 2.5 "to evaluate risk profile of operations," and sorts drone activity into Open, Specific and Certified categories, with the Open category applying to drones over 250 grams under a 120-metre altitude limit and a 30-metre distance requirement from non-consenting people; public consultation on the proposal closed on 18 July 2025.

Chile's DGAC published the fourth edition of DAN 151 in 2026, moving the country from what Chilean trade press describes as a scheme of rigid prohibitions toward what the same reporting calls "un modelo mas profesional, basado en la gestion del riesgo" (a more professional model based on risk management), incorporating SORA-style impact assessments. The new edition expands scope from a focus on populated areas to cover all drone operations "regardless of environment or purpose," and DAN 151 together with the complementary DAN 91 rule explicitly enables drone operations for mining, agriculture and environmental management; Formation Environmental SpA's DGAC-issued Air Operator Certificate, reported in Chilean mining trade press in January 2026, is one named example of an operator certified under that framework.

Colombia's Unidad Administrativa Especial de Aeronautica Civil (UAEAC) regulates civil drones under RAC 91, incorporated via Resolution 4201 of 2018, which sorts unmanned aircraft into three classes. Class A, up to 25 kilograms and 80 kilometres per hour, requires no authorisation but is limited to image capture, excluding fumigation, spraying or transport. Class B, up to 150 kilograms and 160 kilometres per hour, requires formal authorisation from the DSNA within five days of application, or twelve hours where public interest applies, along with mandatory third-party liability insurance. Class C, covering aircraft above 150 kilograms, aircraft used for transport services and aircraft making international overflights, is, in the regulation's own terms, not authorised to operate in Colombian airspace.

The Brazilian Army's most consequential 2026 drone programme is a dedicated Army drone battalion in formation, to be headquartered in Taubate in the interior of Sao Paulo state with a further sub-unit in Rio de Janeiro. A survey by the Army, reported by Revista Sociedade Militar on 29 May 2026, found 87 companies it judged to have some level of technical capability to develop drones for the force; the battalion's four planned systems, intended for strategic attack, reconnaissance and surveillance missions, are each estimated at approximately US$90 million, with an investment decision reported as expected in June 2026. Separately, the Army's Centro de Aquisicoes signed the R$2.46 million contract with HBR Aviacao described above in February 2026, and selected XMobots' Nauru 1000C as the platform for border surveillance.

The Brazilian Navy's Directorate of Aeronautics signed a R$50 million technical-cooperation agreement with XMobots in Rio de Janeiro on 26 January 2026, part-financed by state oil company Petrobras under a project named MMRE (Marinha, Meio Ambiente e Recursos Energeticos). The agreement extends two XMobots aircraft, the Nauru 1000C, already used by the Army for border monitoring, and the Nauru 500C, described by the companies involved as the first eVTOL certified by ANAC for BVLOS flight, to shipboard and offshore-platform operation, with stated goals covering oil-spill detection, environmental-emergency response, search and rescue, and anti-trafficking patrol across Brazilian Jurisdictional Waters. Testing is planned at the Naval Air Base of Sao Pedro da Aldeia in Rio de Janeiro state and aboard Navy vessels.

Colombia's National Anti-Drone Shield, announced in January 2026 (reported as the 10th by one trade outlet and the 12th by another) by Defence Minister Pedro Sanchez Suarez, carries a total budget reported at approximately COP 6.2 trillion by two accounts and COP 6.3 trillion by a third, converting to roughly US$1.6 billion to US$1.7 billion depending on the source, with an initial 2026 tranche of around COP 1 trillion, or US$260 million to US$265 million. The programme is structured around three pillars, legislation and doctrine, training and operations, and technology, and combines "early-warning sensors, electronic-warfare systems, physical interceptors and a centralised command-and-control platform" according to the Ministry of Defence, protecting "strategic infrastructures, military and police operations, border regions, critical infrastructure, international airports and major cities." A parallel, competitive counter-UAS acquisition process invited more than 100 companies from 21 countries to evaluation trials that ran from 23 March through April 2026, with a contract targeted before the second half of 2026 against the same roughly COP 6.2 trillion total and COP 1 trillion initial allocation.

Agricultural adoption is the largest funding driver on the civil side of the Brazilian market. Reporting citing Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAPA) and the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) puts the national fleet of agricultural drones at approximately 35,000 units in operation by 2025, up from roughly 3,000 in 2021, with industry accounts projecting a further rise to 50,000 units in 2026; two separately fetched trade-press sources agree on both the 35,000 and 50,000 figures. Spraying is the dominant application within that fleet: the same reporting states drone-based spraying achieved deposition into the lower crop canopy reported as up to 1.9 times higher than ground-based methods in some cases, alongside reduced trampling loss against mechanised ground spraying, cited at up to 7% in soybean and 4.8% in rice. In Chile, the DAN 151 and DAN 91 framework described above underpins a smaller, named agricultural and mining drone sector, evidenced by operators such as Formation Environmental SpA.

XMobots is the clearest named domestic manufacturer in the region. Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Sao Carlos, Sao Paulo state, with a move to its current factory there in 2020, the company describes itself as "leaders in the development of RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircrafts) in Latin America," and has moved from environmental-monitoring origins toward defence work; its own published timeline reports rising from 15th place among the world's largest drone companies in 2020 to 6th place by 2023, a company self-description this page reports as XMobots' own claim rather than as an independently verified ranking. Its Nauru 1000C supplies both the Army's border-monitoring programme and, alongside the newer Nauru 500C eVTOL, the Navy and Petrobras-funded MMRE naval programme.

Foreign suppliers hold the region's oldest named defence contracts among the sources fetched for this page. Israel's Elbit Systems sold Hermes 900 unmanned aircraft to Chile's armed forces in a deal announced in June 2011 and reported worth several tens of millions of dollars, intended for surveillance and reconnaissance along the country's coastline. Argentina's domestic manufacturer, Nostromo Defensa, supplied three Yarara tactical UAVs to the Argentine Air Force under a March 2011 contract, for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance missions and for training pilots at the force's new UAV school; no more recent named Argentine procurement record for either company was found in the sources fetched for this page.

Mordor Intelligence's South America Small UAV Market report, the one of the three analyst estimates covered below that is scoped to this page's five-country definition, names AeroVironment, Teledyne Technologies, Elbit Systems, XMOBOTS Aeroespacial e Defesa and EDGE Group as the market's principal vendors, and attributes 41.93% of 2025 regional revenue to Brazil, with Chile carrying the fastest projected country-level growth at a 13.55% CAGR through 2031. On the agricultural side, reporting on Brazil's spraying-drone fleet growth names DJI Agriculture as a source for global adoption figures cited in that reporting, though no fleet-penetration data confirming DJI's specific share of the Brazilian market was found in the sources fetched for this page.

Three research houses size this market on different geographic and segment definitions, and their published figures disagree accordingly. Mordor Intelligence's South America Small UAV Market, scoped to Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru and the rest of South America, the same five-country definition this page uses, puts the market at USD 495.41 million in 2025, rising to USD 946.72 million by 2031 at an 11.51% CAGR. Cognitive Market Research's South America military drone market report, covering the same geography but scoped to military drones specifically, puts the region at USD 662.56 million in 2023, expanding at a 7.2% compound annual rate through 2030, and gives 2023 country-level figures of Brazil USD 283.58 million, Argentina USD 111.31 million, Colombia USD 58.97 million, Peru USD 54.33 million and Chile USD 47.70 million. IMARC Group's Latin America drone technology market report, by contrast, is not scoped to South America alone: it covers the wider Latin America region, which by definition includes Mexico and Central American and Caribbean markets outside this page's five-country focus, and puts that broader market at USD 2.3 billion in 2025, rising to USD 6.1 billion by 2034 at an 11.04% CAGR.

The three estimates disagree for reasons their own scopes explain rather than a single reconcilable error. Mordor and Cognitive Market Research differ because one covers all small UAVs, including civil and agricultural platforms, while the other is scoped to military drones specifically. IMARC's headline figure sits an order of magnitude above both because it aggregates the wider Latin America region, including Mexico, rather than the five South American countries this page covers. None of the three fetched pages discloses a segment definition granular enough to convert cleanly between "small UAV," "military drone" and "drone technology" scopes, so the figures are presented here as a documented disagreement in the public record. This is Tier 5 evidence in the terms this page uses throughout: syndicated market-research output, useful for showing the range analysts publish, not resolved here into a single figure this page treats as authoritative.