Defense Ethernet Market to Grow to $9.7 Billion by 2030 as Militaries Adopt AI-Driven, Software-Defined Systems

The market for operational technology (OT) Ethernet in defense and military applications, meaning the networking infrastructure that connects sensors, control systems, and other hardware on military platforms, is projected to grow from $7.4 billion in 2026 to $9.7 billion by 2030, according to research firm ABI Research. The growth is being driven by armed forces increasingly digitizing aircraft, missiles, drones, vehicles, and command-and-control systems, part of a broader shift toward military platforms that are software-defined, driven by data, and increasingly reliant on AI, all of which require faster, more reliable network connections than older wiring standards can support.

Dimitris Mavrakis, senior research director at ABI Research, said the defense sector is shifting away from modernizing individual platforms in isolation and moving instead toward network-centric, software-defined operations, a change that's turning Ethernet into a strategic requirement rather than just one connectivity option among several. He said that as sensor fusion, meaning combining data from multiple sensors into a single unified picture, along with autonomous missions and AI processing at the edge become standard requirements, suppliers able to deliver ruggedized, secure, and reliably deterministic Ethernet solutions, meaning connections that guarantee data arrives with predictable t...