THE UK’S APPROACH TO VEHICLE SYSTEMS INTEGRATION AND MODEL BASED STANDARDISATION

This paper reviews the UK Defence Standard 23-009 for Generic Vehicle Architecture (GVA), describes how the standard is being applied to the UK vehicle procurement programme, and the benefits expected from adopting the approach and standard. The expansion of the use of GVA to other countries will be discussed including the adoption of the fundamental approach by NATO/ 5 eyes countries INTRODUCTION Land platforms are typically in-service for many years and are subject to significant updates through life. Recent experience has highlighted the need to rapidly update platforms in response to new threats and scenarios. The traditional approach to platform design with standalone subsystems results in costly and time-consuming upgrades and system integration. Bolt-on system approaches also proliferate the number of crew controls and displays along with duplication of infrastructure and services. This increases the size, weight, and power consumption of the mission system and components, makes it difficult to upgrade and update, and leads to a high cost of ownership through life. Figure 1: Standalone Mission Sub-Systems The GVA approach provides a standardized integration architecture with a standardized display and control point. It is based on established Systems Engineering principles to define a set of rules and constraints, based on open standards to realize cost effective integration (electronic, electrical and physical). GVA aims to constrain design solutions to the minimum Proceedings of the 2018 Ground Vehicle Systems Engineering and Technology Symposium (GVSETS) The UK’s approach to vehicle systems integration and model based standardization Page 2 of 11 possible to realize the system integration and interworking goals. This allows system implementers maximum freedom to innovate. Figure 2: Integrated Mission Sub-Systems In 2010, the UK MOD started application of the GVA Approach for all future land vehicle platform procurements, and current vehicle platform refurbishment and upgrade programs. Land Open Systems (LOSA) Architecture GVA is an integral part of the Land Open System Architecture (LOSA) which extended the GVA “Open Systems” principles to encompass soldier and base systems. Figure 3: Land Open Systems Architecture Each land platform type vehicle, soldier or base has an associated UK Defence Standard which outlines the approach, rules and technical standards to be applied. The standards referenced are either commercial standards or UK Defence standards such as the UK Defence Standard for Vetronics Infrastructure for Video over Ethernet (Defence Standard 00-082). Underpinning all three standards is the UK MOD standard for definition of the data interface requirements for logical functions and components called the Land Data Model (LDM). The LDM is fundamental to realization of system interoperability. It has been developed by the UK MOD but is freely available and released for re-use under the UK Open Government License. LOSA aims to provide increased operational effectiveness, opportunities for technology insertion and an improved acquisition process, through influencing the three key areas of commercial, technical and operational flexibility. Figure 4: LOSA Key Areas The primary objective is to improve operational effectiveness, but with changes to the commercial approach and the exploitation of new technologies, LOSA can also achieve a business benefit of reduced cost of acquisition and through life support. Commercial Flexibility The ability to acquire equipment and services affordably and within required timescales. Operational Flexibility Ability to configure force elements and operate as required to achieve mission aims in the operational environment. Technical Flexibility Ability to implement effective and efficient technical solutions. Commercial Flexibility is a pre-requisite for operational and technical flexibility, without it new technology will not be exploited operationally Techncial Flexibility needs to be a step ahead, anticipating the potential and foundations of the future market and technology. Proceedings of the 2018 Ground Vehicle Systems Engineering and Technology Symposium (GVSETS) The UK’s approach to vehicle systems integration and model based standardization Page 3 of 11 GVA Benefits The benefits of applying an “Open Systems” approach as used by GVA are wide-ranging, but difficult to quantify and track. Figure ? shows a taxonomy of potential benefits at different levels of organization from the application of GVA. It results in a more integrated set of mission subsystems using compliant electronic and power infrastructures. As a result of GVA compliance, the brigade itself can become a more Interoperable Force Element, that is more able to work with others and share information that enables collaborative working, agile mission grouping, and effects synchronization. Figure 5: Benefits Taxonomy GVA Standard Defence Standard 23-009 is the standard for GVA. It is published as a number of parts covering the areas to be standardized. The parts breakdown showing the coverage is shown in the figure below: Part 0 GVA Approach Part 1 Infrastructure (Data/Power) Part 2 Human Machine Interface (HMI) Part 3 Health and Usage Monitoring System Part 4 Physical Interfaces Part 5 Data Model Part 6 Security Part 7 Platform services Part 8 Safety Figure 6: Defence Standard 23-009 The parts shown in green are issued and published and those in orange are still to be issued if required. The part in red was originally issued but has since been withdrawn. Work is ongoing to address requirements for security, particularly for the Electronic Architecture and there is research activity targeting the need for GVA safety requirements. MOD GVA Application The GVA approach has been applied since 2010 to UK MOD vehicle projects. The only one currently delivered and in service is the Foxhound protected mobility vehicle. Foxhound has been used on operations since 2011 in a number of locations. Other GVA-based vehicle projects are still in various stages of development and manufacture. These include Ajax, Warrior Capability Sustainment Programme (CSP), Challenger 2 Life Extension Project (CR2-LEP), Mechanised Infantry Vehicle (MIV), Multi-Role VehicleProtected (MRV-P), and the Future All Terrain Vehicle (F-ATV). GVA International Expansion Although the GVA approach originated in the UK the UK military market alone was insufficient for Industry to change their internal design approaches and products. To become successful GVA would have to become adopted by a much wider community. The UK had strong vehicle System Integration research programme and links with German vetronics research via a bi-lateral agreement. There was also close co-operation on Proceedings of the 2018 Ground Vehicle Systems Engineering and Technology Symposium (GVSETS) The UK’s approach to vehicle systems integration and model based standardization Page 4 of 11 vetronics standards via the Military Vetronics Association (MILVA) which has a Government and Industry membership. MILVA had been charged by NATO Land Capability Group – Land Engagement to develop a number of NATO Standards. MILVA made representations to LCGLE to develop a NATO STANAG based on GVA. This was approved and NATO STANAG 4754 started to be developed in 2011. After a number of years of work the majority of European governments and industry aligned behind a common approach resulting in the promulgation of STANAG 4754 in April 2018 Industry Perspective UK MOD and industry have been working together to create GVA. This has resulted in an expert team of vehicle integrators and equipment manufactures coming together with the UK MOD technical teams to create a standard that everyone buys into. Scale and Scope GVA covers the Power, Data and Video architectures for fighting vehicles, defining the physical connectivity and data formats necessary for systems integration. Another huge benefit of GVA is that it defines the layout and location of key GVA functions that will be realized on a multi-function display. Industry viewpoint There are now several layers within the "GVA industry". The Platform prime has responsibility for delivering a GVA enabled vehicle but may not have the GVA know-how. This has created a market place for GVA integrators, who know about things like middleware. Finally the equipment or box manufactures find themselves producing equipment with GVA interfaces and so on. The benefits of the physical aspects of GVA are well understood (the adoption of common connectors etc). Many equipment vendors now produce “GVA ready” hardware. The challenge of producing a set of ‘code’ that complies with the LDM is made easy by the translation tools that UK MOD have made freely available. Compliance The GVA standard could be viewed as a set of design constraints that guides a platform integrator towards implementing an open architecture for power, data and video. As such, the standard has been written in carefully couched language, with uniquely identified requirements, tagged with a priority, a measure of performance, a justification of why the requirement exists and how to verify the requirement has been met. It is expected that a program office could adjust/tailor the application of the GVA standard (for example, by only adopting the mandatory requirements) if necessary. Victory/GVA contrast Whilst on the face of it Victory and GVA have similar goals, there are some fundamental differences in the approach taken by both standards. Victory’s published intent is to provide an architecture to support C4ISR/EW systems, whilst GVA has a wider remit across the whole of the platform. One of GVA’s attributes is the common HMI. The benefit of this should not be underestimated in terms of providing a reduction in operational burden and a cross platform reduction in training. The standards themselves are based upon worldwide open standards, making use of technologies such as Ethernet and