Geopolitical uncertainty is rapidly reshaping the defence landscape. Renewed NATO commitments, shifting threat environments, and the accelerating integration of advanced technologies are placing unprecedented demands on a defence estate encumbered by hangars designed for earlier-generation aircraft, communications facilities built before the age of cyber warfare, and training complexes that predate unmanned systems. Similarly, many still-in-use accommodation blocks were designed for a workforce that was very different demographically from today’s armed forces. Across the defence ecosystem, increased spending is creating a generational wave of capital investment as governments undertake strategic defence reviews and commit to long-term national priorities.
With more than 50 years of experience in defence design, we are working alongside defence organizations navigating these pressures. The sector is changing faster than at any point in recent memory, and the infrastructure decisions being made today will impact operational readiness for decades. In this Insight Article, we explore what these pressures mean for defence infrastructure and how planning and design decisions can support evolving operational demands.
Connecting Assets to Readiness and Capabilities
The defence infrastructure network is broader than a collection of individual facilities. It integrates army, naval, and air force bases, training environments, housing, logistics networks, digital systems, and secure operational assets that support day-to-day operations and long-term readiness.
Defence organizations are focusing infrastructure modernization and renewal around three priorities:
- Resilience and redundancy — Power continuity, hardened communications, and fail-safe systems are now baseline expectations, not enhancements. Mission-critical facilities need to operate through disruption, whether from cyber attack, physical threat, or climate-related events.
- Digital integration — Modern defence operations generate and consume vast quantities of data. Infrastructure needs to accommodate high-density communications, secure networks, edge computing, and the physical requirements of AI-enabled systems — from server room capacity to electromagnetic shielding.
- Operational flexibility — Evolving threats demand adaptive spaces. Facilities need to support rapid reconfiguration as mission profiles, platforms, and force compositions change — often with limited notice.
Human-Centric Design
Defence infrastructure environments are increasingly expected to support both operational preparedness and long-term workforce wellbeing — and the two are more connected than they might appear. The quality of the built environment directly influences recruitment, retention, and sustained operational performance. Human performance is itself a mission-critical variable, and designing for it is as important as meeting technical specifications.
The design considerations vary by facility type, but the underlying principle is consistent: defence infrastructure must support the people who operate, maintain, and make decisions within secure, high-pressure environments.
Design considerations such as acoustic performance, flexible layouts, secure adjacencies, operator visibility, lighting, comfort, and access to focused work areas can improve daily function and long-term readiness. These elements are most effective when they are tied to the specific operational tempo, security requirements, and mission profile of each facility.
Collaborative Delivery Models
Defence procurement is moving away from ‘one-size-fits-all’ to models that bring architecture and engineering firms and builder teams together to harness scope, risk, approvals, and cost escalation, particularly when technical requirements are difficult to define upfront.
The biggest shift is toward collaborative delivery. Commonly used models now include Integrated Project Delivery, Modified Design-Build, and Construction Management. For us, this means moving beyond a fixed brief to help define requirements in collaboration with the end user, designer, and builder, while maintaining focus on needs, cost, and schedule certainty.
Defence agencies are looking for early design intelligence, constructability input, cost, schedule and risk certainty, phasing strategies, sustainability advice, and stakeholder engagement before a project is fully locked down. The UK Construction Playbook reinforces this approach, emphasizing early preparation, outcome-based thinking, market engagement, and collaborative procurement to improve public project delivery.
The result is a more strategic procurement environment. Value for the taxpayer is important, and governments are increasingly evaluating teams on technical capability, delivery certainty, past performance, risk management, social value, carbon reduction, Indigenous/community engagement, digital delivery, and lifecycle thinking.
Mobilizing for Defence Readiness
We are supporting growing requirements for readiness through active defence projects, procurement programs, and contractor partnerships, including:
- NORR’s selection onto Defence Construction Canada’s Architecture and Engineering National Source List, which has assigned $270M to consultants to support the delivery of infrastructure upgrades across Canada over the next five years
- Department of National Defence projects for new capabilities for quick reaction alert hangars, interim operations plans, and Canadian Armed Forces housing accommodations
- Partnerships with key contractors on projects within the UK’s Defence Estate Optimisation Portfolio, which addresses facility modernization, consolidation, new construction, and the conversion of outdated defence properties to new public uses
- Royal Air Force bases and facilities
The Rise of Spaceports
In an ever-changing global environment, space is now recognized as a critical operational domain for UK Defence, alongside land, maritime, air, and cyber. Modern military operations are heavily dependent on space-based services for surveillance, communication, navigation, intelligence, and reconnaissance. These capabilities underpin strategic decision-making, frontline capability, national security, and operational advantage.
The MOD’s Defence Space Strategy sets out an ambitious vision “to be a meaningful actor in the space domain, securing UK interests alongside our allies and partners to ensure operational freedom in Space.”
Having successfully delivered designs for both vertical and horizontal commercial spaceport facilities, we have a unique understanding of the complex and highly regulated requirements associated with spaceport infrastructure design.
Vertical launch sites require the careful planning of Launch Pad Complexes, Launch Vehicle Integration Facilities, and Launch Operation Control Buildings. Horizontal launch facilities introduce additional considerations, including runway access, airfield integration, and coordination with existing airport operations.
Spaceports are critical enablers of the UK’s space ambitions, facilitating the safe and reliable launch of satellites into orbit for commercial, defence, and security purposes. As the UK continues to invest in space to enhance its defence and security capabilities, we are well positioned to support the delivery of resilient, future-ready infrastructure that underpins this ambition.
21st-Century Defence Measures
As defence investment accelerates, the conversation is shifting from individual assets to interconnected networks and ecosystems of readiness. In this new landscape, integrated thinking will undoubtedly become an increasingly important strategy for resilience.
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