An analysis of the development of UAV technology in Iran with an emphasis on the strategic niche management approach

The need for policy-making in any technological transition is to analyze its current situation. This paper is about the development processes of UAV technological niche in Iran. Therefore, first, based on theoretical foundations of the research, a questionnaire was developed for evaluating three development processes of technological niche, including "expectations and vision articulation", "network building" and "learning". Next, with the surveying tool, the current situation of the processes mentioned in the development of the UAV technological niche in Iran was evaluated and the strengths and weaknesses of their components were determined. It was found that all three processes are at a weak level. Of course, the status of the process of "expectations and vision articulation" is somewhat better. Also, the components of "attention to non-technical aspects", "interactions and participation of actors in the form of network" and "learning environment and the level of competition", the weakest components and the "level of innovative of expectations and vision", "the level of actors' lobbying power", "the formation of advocative coalitions", and "the quality and quantity of learning", the strongest components were recognized. Then, with a panel of experts, a qualitative analysis of the status of these processes took place. In the end, it became clear that it is a good applicable approach for analyzing the development of emerging defense technologies