diff --git a/meta-arm-autonomy/README.md b/meta-arm-autonomy/README.md
index 836d459a..785f278b 100644
--- a/meta-arm-autonomy/README.md
+++ b/meta-arm-autonomy/README.md
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ This layer is adding the following Yocto DISTRO_FEATURES:
   an autonomy host system. It is doing the following:
   - add 'xen' and 'ipv4' to DISTRO_FEATURES.
   - add xen backend drivers to linux kernel configuration.
+  - To reduce the root filesystem image size the kernel image is not installed.
 
 * arm-autonomy-guest: this feature activates functionalities to run as guest
   of an autonomy system. It is doing the following:
diff --git a/meta-arm-autonomy/conf/distro/include/arm-autonomy-host.inc b/meta-arm-autonomy/conf/distro/include/arm-autonomy-host.inc
index 236fbe92..bd98ae21 100644
--- a/meta-arm-autonomy/conf/distro/include/arm-autonomy-host.inc
+++ b/meta-arm-autonomy/conf/distro/include/arm-autonomy-host.inc
@@ -3,3 +3,7 @@
 # We need to have xen and ipv4 activated
 DISTRO_FEATURES_append = " xen ipv4"
 
+# Don't include kernels in standard images when building arm-autonomy-host
+# If the kernel image is needed in the rootfs the following should be set from
+# a bbappend: RDEPENDS_${KERNEL_PACKAGE_NAME}-base = "${KERNEL_PACKAGE_NAME}-image"
+RDEPENDS_${KERNEL_PACKAGE_NAME}-base ?= ""