Generic Vehicle Architecture Information

The Generic Vehicle Architecture (GVA) approach is the approach taken by the UK MOD to the design of the electronic and power architectures for military vehicles. It also includes requirements for standardisation of the Human Machine interface. The main requirements for this approach are published in Defence Standard 23-009

Land platforms are typically in-service for many years and are subject to significant updates through life. Recent experience has shown how there is a need to be able to update platforms quickly in order to address new threats and scenarios. The traditional approach to platform design with stand alone sub-systems results in stove piped upgrades with integration conflicts, a proliferation of crew controls and displays, power conflicts, lack of exploitation of data and lack of standardisation across the fleet with training and maintenance issues. All these issues lead to a significantly higher cost of ownership through life.

The GVA approach is based on established Systems Engineering principles to define a generic architecture that requires open implementation standards to support cost effective integration of sub-systems on land platforms (electronically, electrically and physically). The Director Land Equipment (DLE) has mandated the application of the GVA Approach and the associated GVA Defence Standard 23-009 for all future land vehicle platform procurement, current vehicle platform refurbishment and upgrade programmes. GVA is an integral part of the Land Open System Architecture (LOSA) which aims to enable soldiers, vehicles, and bases to work better together thereby increasing operational effectiveness and reducing the systems of systems through life costs.

An integral part of LOSA and GVA is a data standard based on an Object Management Group (OMG) Standard called Model Driven Architecture (MDA). The data standard is called the Land Data Model (LDM) and defines data interfaces and behaviour between components of the modular architecture. This enables interoperability between modules built by different vendors for use in a distributed system. The LDM can be accessed at the Land Open Systems Portal.

The origins of GVA lie in the MOD research programme. Initially there was SAVE (Systematic Approach to Vehicle Electronics), a 1980s UK Programme based on the concept of producing a series of standard electronic modules, connected by a standard digital data transmission system. The restrictions imposed by this approach inspired the VERDI (Vehicle Electronics Research Defence Initiative) Programme, a collaboration between the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) and Industry which demonstrated the possibilities offered by total systems integration and which yielded crucial information for the subsequent definition phase of this work. Following on from VERDI, the UK MoD initiated the VESTA (Vehicle Standards Architecture) initiative in the mid - 1990s, chaired by DERA, to identify standards suitable for systems integration. The VESTA outputs provided a firm foundation for the follow on work undertaken by the VSI Programme.

In 1997, the UK MOD launched a research program called Vehicle Systems Integration (VSI). The programme is still live today and continues to provide the underpinning research for the Generic Vehicle Architecture initiative. VSI’s aim is to ensure that the full benefit of digitized platform can be realized and, its charter states that “All future military land platform procurements, selected legacy platforms and their updates will adhere to the Vetronics standards and guidelines which have been proposed and developed under the Vehicle Systems Integration (VSI) programme, and which are promulgated in the detailed Standards and Guidelines for VSI documentation.”

An industry led working group was formed, and over the following decade produced and maintained a 300-page document entitled “The VSI standards and guidelines”. The document attempted to capture the emerging open standards in terms of power, data and video and looked at how to apply them to military vehicle systems. Being just a set of guidelines, and despite the charter, there was no real authority to mandate or force compliance. The industry members of the VSI group tended to adopt the VSI principles as best they could, often investing their own money to further the VSI concepts. Recognizing the importance of digitization, the VSI work also fed into other international interest groups within NATO as well as the UK/US TRACER-FSCS programme. Later, the VSI Standards and Guidelines were to provide the cornerstone of the GVA defense standard.

The Future Rapid Effects System (FRES) was a name given to a UK programme to deliver a fleet of some 4000 vehicles to the British Army. Intended to be a mix of platform capabilities ranging from an Ambulance to a reconnaissance vehicle, with the need to be rapidly deployed into a variety of operational scenarios a modular scalable approach to the platform systems was essential. In 2005, the UK MOD contracted two parallel Technology Demonstration Programmes (TDPs), whose aim was produce an Electronic Architecture that was modular and scalable enough to fit all of the envisaged FRES fleet of vehicles. The two teams, led by BAES and Lockheed Martin, produced and demonstrated two independent Electronic Architecture solutions that were shown to meet the intent of the VSI standards and guidelines. The FRES programme has since been restructured; however aspects of the FRES EA TDP architectures are to be found in the current GVA Defence standard.

In early 2007, the UK MOD contracted a consortium led by QinetiQ to investigate the concept of Modular Integrated Survivability (IS). The 3-year programme, called VTID (Vehicle Technology Integration Demonstrator) pulled in various domain experts. The VTID Vehicle programme investigated the hypothesis that reconfigurable IS can be developed that can offer a flexible and effective protection mechanism for land vehicles. QinetiQ and consortium partners produced a modular vehicle demonstration system that was used in a series of live firing trials to show how a Modular Integrated Survivability system could be realized. The VTID architectural concept documents have been taken into account in the formation of the GVA Defence standard.

Driven by the need to integrate a multitude of rapid technology insertions and upgrades (so called Urgent Operational Requirements), quickly and efficiently, the Gulf war has perhaps been the catalyst to solidify the years of research work into Electronic Architecture. The UK army found itself owning a raft of new capabilities and indeed new vehicles. The new ‘Force Protection’ fleet, bought in from the US and ‘modified’ had a range of Theatre Entry equipment fitted. A lack of common architecture slowed down not only the installation of the equipment, but also the training and subsequent re-training, as more and more rapid technology insertions and uplifts were carried out. The vehicles were harder to maintain and operate, with different configurations proving a burden on the logistic chain. This resulted in additional expense, and not least frustration; something needed to change!

The GVA standard was officially released at Issue 1, in August 2010. Issue 1 was then implemented on the Foxhound vehicle, setting the benchmark for all UK vehicle architectures going forward.

Although very difficult to objectively quantify the application of the GVA Approach by MOD aims to deliver benefit in many areas such as:

The GVA Defence Standard 23-009 describes and defines the GVA Approach and technical design rules and standards to be applied but is not a system architecture or design in itself. It does not mandate a specific design as the system implementation will vary according to the requirements of the vehicle platform and its role.

The Def Stan does explicitly provide requirements that constrain the design of a vehicle platform. Def Stan 23-009 will achieve its purpose when the GVA requirements are embedded within the platform design, and other contractual mechanisms, and the implementation verified through the standard project Verification and Validation processes.

Sub-systems are integrated into a vehicle platform through the GVA based electronic infrastructure which consists of an electronic data infrastructure and a power infrastructure, together with a set of specified mechanical mountings and connectors, and common Human Machine Interface (HMI) requirements. This enables data interoperability of sub systems and crew stations, and the rapid re-roling and upgrading of the vehicle platform.

Defence Standard 23-009 is currently split into the parts below:

You can obtain the current issued parts of the Defence Standard from the UK Defence Standards Website but you need to register with the Defence Gateway first

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