US and Israeli companies have a significant advantage over the rest of the world when it comes to UAV technology maturity levels. The governments of both countries have been investing heavily in UAVs for many decades, while the majority of European armed forces have only begun to understand the full potential of the technology for military applications as a result of working closely with the US in Afghanistan and Iraq. As a result, there has been little in R&D funding available for UAV manufacturers in European countries, meaning that the majority of systems are being built at companies' own costs, making the technology very expensive to develop.
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