The availability of ships for maintenance periods will determine how the Navy proceeds with holding competitions among five qualified vendors for the production and delivery of the new IT systems called CANES, according to program officials.

The maintenance availabilities of the Navy’s fleet will also dictate the timing of the competitions and number of units sought by the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR), the officials said in a conference call with reporters.

The USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70). Photo: U.S. Navy
The USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70). Photo: U.S. Navy

“Delivery orders will be bundled and organized based on (ship) availability,” Capt. William McNeal, the CANES and tactical networks program manager at SPAWAR, told reporters Aug. 21.

CANES stands for Consolidated Afloat Network Enterprise Systems, and is designed to eliminate multiple legacy information technology systems by effectively merging stand-alone networks for command, control, computers, communications, and intelligence (C4I) systems into a common, interoperable  shipboard computing environment.

The Navy on Aug. 20 announced a $2.5 billion contracting arrangement for the full-rate production of CANES that qualified five companies to compete for the work over an eight-year period. That included incumbent 

Northrop Grumman [NOC], as well as General Dynamics [GD], BAE Systems, and smaller firms Global Technical Systems and Serco.

Under the contract, each of the five firms will produce one CANES system for installation on an Arleigh Burke-class (DDG-51) destroyer. McNeal said that was set up to allow the four new companies to get up to speed on the program, but after that all of them will have to bid on task orders, the first expected to be issued by the end of this year.

The Navy plans to install CANES in 180 ships, submarines and shore operation centers.

Northrop Grumman was contracted to build more than two dozen CANES systems under LRIP, and some have already been installed on Arleigh Burke destroyers.

Initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) began earlier this month aboard the USS Higgins (DDG-76) ahead of the decision to fully deploy CANES next year. CANES installations have been completed on nine destroyers, and it’s being integrated on three aircraft carriers, one amphibious assault ship, eight more destroyers, a landing dock ship and one cruiser, according to SPAWAR.