The Government Accountability Office has upheld a protest on behalf of CGI Federal, a company that had objected to the Navy’s decision to exclude it from competing for the full-rate production of its new ship-based information technology system known as CANES.
The GAO decision online Thursday did not include its reasoning behind the decision as the agency had yet to complete a public statement. The GAO website also showed that a second protest filed by Finmeccanica
‘s DRS Technologies had been denied. In this case as well, a public statement outlining the decision had yet to be made available.
The Navy in August announced that CANES incumbent Northrop Grumman [NOC], along with four other companies–General Dynamics [GD], BAE Systems, and smaller firms Global Technical Systems and Serco–had won certification to compete for the full-rate production of the Consolidated Afloat Network Enterprise System (CANES).
Within two weeks, CGI Federal and DRS Technologies lodged their protests with the GAO. Successful protests of contract awards typically prompt the government to hold a new competition. But in this case, it is conceivable the Navy could simply add CGI Federal to the list of certified companies rather than hold a brand new competition.
The Navy’s command overseeing CANES, the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR), said it would review the decision and determine how to proceed.
“The government will analyze the GAO’s decision and assess all viable courses of action to minimize impacts to the greatest extent possible,” SPAWAR spokesman Steven Davis said.
Northrop Grumman has been producing CANES in low-rate production. For full-rate production, the Navy wanted to have the multiple companies involved to facilitate continuous competition of CANES products to drive down cost and yield the best possible innovation. That approach is enabled by the Navy’s ownership of the CANES design, a term Northrop Grumman had to agree to to win the low-rate production contract.
The Navy had, in awarding the full-rate contract, asked the five companies to each produce one CANES system each for a destroyer. That plan was put on hold once the protests were filed. Going forward, the Navy planned to proceed with competitive task orders to compete CANES in batches.
The Navy plans to install CANES in 180 ships, submarines and shore operation centers. CANES 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.
Initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) was completed earlier this year aboard the USS Higgins (DDG-76) ahead of decision to fully deploy CANES next year. Low-rate production CANES installations have taken place on 10 destroyers and one aircraft carrier, with installations ongoing on three carriers, one amphibious assault ship, seven destroyers and two cruisers, SPAWAR said.