A few years ago DDS Research (as it then was) spoke about some of the "A-projects" which are warship concepts that later on may feed into actual designs. Usually they are internal only to NS Research (and secret) but a small number of interesting projects were made public to spur debate. Now almost exactly 5 years on NS Research has published a "progress report" on these 3 A-projects.
Albany was a concept for a new "multi-battlespace" warship that could operate in atmospheres as well as in space. NS have not proceeded much further with Albany though some ideas may be incorporated in future updates to the Type 035 family. Interestingly the new Dino warship the Dinomark AM has many of the features of Albany though Director of Technology Dr Forbidden said that the multi-battlespace features of Dino ships were an inspiration of Albany in the first place.
Adder was an ambitious project being a modular replacement for the Provider and Extender transport fleets. As with Albany Adder has not yet proceeded to an actual ship design though the Emerald 116A unmanned transport is said to take some ideas from Adder.
Finally August was a small warfighter with superluminal capabilities. Dr Forbidden said that the Alpha 121A NFS is based on many features of August though its development was parallel to the A-project. More aspects of August may appear in the forthcoming unmanned Lavender 105A patrol ship.
