The UK’s 2025 Strategic Defence Review (SDR) has fundamentally transformed the operational requirements for UAV ground support infrastructure, particularly for large-scale coordinated operations involving multiple aircraft types.
With procurement timelines compressed to as little as 3 months and the adoption of multi-domain operations, there is an urgent need for modular, rapidly deployable ground support platforms that can enable both single-platform and large-scale UAV operations in any environment, from austere forward operating bases to established military installations.
This whitepaper examines the critical role of modular UAV ground support platforms in meeting the SDR 2025 requirements, focusing on rapidly deployable landing, take-off, and operational support infrastructure capable of supporting everything from tactical platforms like the MQ-9 Reaper and Watchkeeper to large-scale coordinated operations involving multiple aircraft types simultaneously. As the MoD seeks to deploy uncrewed systems at scale and speed, the supporting ground infrastructure must be equally agile, modular, and rapidly deployable.
