UXO Detections Market Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Global Industry Analysis: By Technology (Hardware, Software), By End User (Army, Border forces, Naval), By Application (Spying, Threat Analysing, Target Detection, Attack Detection, Military Project, Others) and Region Forecast 2020-2031

UXO Detections Market size was valued at US$ 1,050 million in 2024 and is expected to reach US$ 1,580 million by 2031, growing at a significant CAGR of 5.1% from 2025-2031. Moreover, the U.S. UXO Detections Market is projected to grow significantly, reaching an estimated value of US$ 480 million by 2031. The UXO detection business is evolving into a business-driven aspect of post-conflict reconstruction, environmental remediation, and infrastructure development from an ad hoc security business. As global attention heightens on history's perpetual balance sheet of landmine threat and post-conflict military ghost fields, precision-based detection technologies became ever more pressing and specific in demand.

From demining in Southeast Asia to pipeline installation in once-warring regions of Europe and the Middle East, the detection of unexploded ordnance is no longer a humanitarian necessity, it's a logistical one. Magnetometry, GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar), and AI sensors aren't just finding threats; they're changing the way risk is being calculated and measured in some of the most dangerous ground on the planet. What is new in the UXO detection market today is where defence, environmental, and commercial needs are intersecting. Governments are investing in smarter, quicker, and more penetrating scanning technology to meet international disarmament treaties, and private contractors in the mining, oil & gas, and construction industries are adding UXO detection to project-stage early risk assessment.

Regulation compliance is as much a part of this market as business continuity. Whilst global warming brings long-lost battlefields to light and the development of infrastructure swallows up big tracts, there is a growing demand for scalable, terrain-invariant detection technologies. The direction is evident: away from slow, high-risk human clearance technology and towards technology-led, data-demanding decision-making systems maximizing safety, velocity, and land-survivability.

Facts & Figures:

• More than 60 nations across the globe remain to be impacted by unexploded ordnance, and detection of UXO is therefore an essential aspect of humanitarian security and reuse of land programs.
• Autonomous UXO detection platforms are minimizing risk in the field by up to 70% in live testing areas, changing the work model from manpower-based clearance to technology-enabled survey tactics.
• The combination of AI-powered subsurface imaging and GIS mapping is empowering defense and civilian organizations to better forecast UXO locations, reducing mission times.
• Increasing demand from mining, energy, and construction in post-conflict areas is fueling private sector investment in scalable UXO risk solutions, frequently ahead of construction.

Recent Developments:

• In May 2025, Humanitarian tech pilots in Cambodia successfully demonstrated drone-borne LiDAR technology to identify buried UXOs from the air, offering a safer and faster alternative to remote demining.
• In April 2025, Next Geosolutions secured €37 million worth of contracts for UXO surveys of offshore energy developments in Germany and the Netherlands, reflecting growing UXO risk management in marine infrastructure and wind farm zones.
• In July 2024, Scientific Systems Corporation received a U.S. Army contract to improve its BORIS software, an artificial intelligence UXO detection system, for increased accuracy in hazardous terrain and more effective data fusion for soldiers.

UXO Detections Market Segmentation:

Based on the technology:

• Hardware
• Software

Hardware leads the technology segment because of its non-replaceable function of physically detecting and finding UXOs in diverse terrain conditions. Sophisticated hardware tools like magnetometers, ground-penetrating radar (GPR), and metal detectors are employed to detect subsurface anomalies at high resolution. The tools are more incorporated into multiple-sensor arrays and autonomous platforms, which allow real-time deployment in the field with minimal human risks. Hardware's physical contribution to mission-critical detection, especially rugged and isolated areas, makes it priceless. With robotics, drone sensors, and portable systems gaining traction, hardware leads the investment with stakeholders focusing on precision, hardness, and field-deployable reliability for high-risk UXO clearance missions.

Based on the end user:

• Army
• Border Force
• Naval

The Army segment is the dominant end-user of the UXO detection business, largely due to its direct interface with historic battlefields, live-fire ranges, and vast land clearing operations. Army forces depend on UXO detection for both tactical and humanitarian purposes, whether for combat mobility terrain clearing or civilian terrain clearing in peacekeeping missions. Their operations are coming to increasingly demand rapid, flexible, and high-rate detection capabilities that will perform under a variety of operational conditions. Military modernization initiatives are also introducing UXO detection systems into normal field logistics and surveillance operations. With growing concern about soldier safety and operational readiness, national defense forces are still the chief drivers of purchase and field testing of detection technology.

Based on the application:

• Spying
• Threat Analysing
• Target Accuracy
• Military Project
• Security
• Others

Threat analysis is currently the most strategically critical application in the UXO detection industry, as it connects raw detection data with actionable intelligence. It is critical in unsafe surroundings to be more able to differentiate between innocuous debris and active ordnance for safe land use and troop transit. UXO detection systems are presently being coupled with AI algorithms for geospatial databases to offer real-time threat prioritization and profiling. This makes better mission planning possible and prevents false alarms otherwise discouraging clearance operations. As UXO threat areas overlap further into urban and industrial development fields, threat analysing has been in the forefront of determining how land is evaluated, de-risked, and reconstructed on a mass scale.