Since its inception, the market for infrared (IR) thermal imaging equipment has grown, primarily, due to its military applications. Today, the military sector still provides some growth for the market, but its development paradigm has changed. Now the main growth in the market is provided by the sectors of civil and medical thermography, security and fire surveillance, personal night vision systems and local security niches (municipal, private, etc.). The devices using thermal imagers make it possible to detect in conditions of poor visibility, to detect people with high temperature in the crowd. In the last decade, a number of new directions and trends have been outlined in infrared photoelectronics. They are associated with increasing the resolution of systems, improving methods for recording ultra-weak optical signals, creating high-speed and multispectral systems, forming infrared 3D images According to forecast of Maxtech International (USA) and today's estimates of the authors, the market for infrared systems (civil and military) amounted to 10.5 billion dollars in 2017, and could reach 20 billion dollars by 2025. Due to the pandemic, we have restated the Maxtech International's forecasts upwardly for the medium term.