LONDON — Following in the footsteps of their land-based brethren, U.K. maritime force planners are mulling how to apply architectures to ship design and construction. The U.K. has a new standard for all land vehicle purchases stipulating that new vehicles must seamlessly integrate subsystems that troops control from a standardized flat-screen crew station. The now-mandatory Generic Vehicle Architecture has cut costs, boosted innovation from smaller companies and helped land forces respond more quickly to shifting threats.

Reaper, Shadow and Sentinel platforms could continue to serve.

A private initiative to supply a test, evaluation, demonstration and experimentation facility for beyond-line-of-sight (BLoS) unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) operations in the U.K. took an important step forward with the formal launch of the National Aeronautical Centre (NAC) Sept. 9.