VME and VPX adopted widely for defense, yet to break into civil aerospace

PHOENIX, 19 Jan. 2015. The largest market for VME and VPX components continues to be defense, explains Toby Colquhoun, senior analyst with IHS Electronics & Media, during a discussion of the world electronics market at VITA’s Embedded Tech Trends (ETT) in Phoenix. Whereas the largest sector for VME and VPX components adoption is defense, the growing civil aerospace market sector has yet to embrace the technologies.

The United States (U.S.) accounts for “40 percent of global defense spending, and 75 percent of that is electronics investment,” Colquohoun adds. “This administration is hot on unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), and training and simulation solutions,” he says.

The market for VPX components is expected to grow at a rate of +20 percent to +25 percent for the next five years. At the same time, VME adoption is predicted to decrease at a rate of -5 percent to -10 percent year over year. IHS, therefore, predicts VPX to overtake VME for the first time this year, Colquohoun concludes.