The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is now flourishing into a wide array of applications around the world. On the production side of the story, the UAV/drone industry is progressing at a rapid rate, with hi-tech and technologically superior products being launched frequently for a variety of purposes. However, as the production process moves towards the legitimate side of things, the ambiguous state of affairs in the UAV industry comes into the picture. In many regions, legislators and the associated governmental entities have been lagging in keeping up with the technological changes in the industry.

Understandably, implications around civil welfare and issues of privacy, as well as safety concerns about flying drones in certain areas are cropping up. Many countries are attempting to formulate, expand, and streamline the regulatory system of UAVs, more so due to the wide-scale success of the commercial UAV market and small UAVs.

The regulatory laws implemented by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the U.S have been acting as a major hurdle in the development of the drone market. The FAA has summarily banned the commercial usage of drones in the U.S. The research analysts at BIS Research claim that the austerity measures taken by the U.S. Government under adverse economic conditions have resulted in sluggishness in the UAV procurements.

Other countries such as Australia and Canada have been more cooperative in the usage of UAVs. These regions have made considerable progress in working out the specific rules associated with commercial drone application. This has given the drone industry a definite push to go ahead and engage in further technological innovations.

Majority of the European nations operate under the jurisdiction of an EU agency known as European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which endorses a simple rule that any kind of drone flight related activity would need proper certification, and would be seen on a case-to-case basis. The U.K is governed by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) which introduced regulations that require operators of small unmanned aircrafts to take prior permission from the Authority for flying in crowded urban areas.

The UAV market has a solid scope to evolve further and become an increasingly specialized global market with growing usage of drones across a variety of applications in the developing and the developed regions. Furthermore, public awareness and understanding revolving around the safety of these drones is key to a holistic growth of the industry.