The two losing companies in the competition for the full production of the Navy’s new ship-based information technology system have formally protested the contract award to the five firms that successfully submitted bids.
DRS Technologies and CGI Federal filed the protests with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) Sept. 2, less than two weeks after the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPWAR) announced the $2.5 billion contract for the full production of the Consolidated Afloat Network Enterprise System (CANES).
The five winning companies were incumbent Northrop Grumman [NOC], General Dynamics [GD], BAE Systems, and two smaller firms, Global Technical Systems and Serco. The award was structured to force the five contractors to compete for CANES production as the Navy identifies needs and the ships slated to receive the afloat information technology system.
DRS Technologies, a subsidiary of Italy’s Finmeccanica,said it has a long experience of providing shipboard systems to the Navy and was disappointed by the Navy’s decision.
“We were disappointed in what we believe to be a flawed evaluation process that resulted in awards to five of seven offerors, but unjustifiably excluded DRS,” a spokesman said. “We look forward to a prompt resolution of this matter and for the opportunity to continue to support our valued Navy customer.”
The GAO said it intends to rule on the protests by Dec. 11. Following a protest, the acquisition command–in this case SPAWAR–typically issues a stop work order on the program subject to the contract award until the protests are resolved. If GAO upholds the protests, the Navy could have to hold a fresh competition.
Northrop Grumman has been providing CANES in low-rate initial production since it won the LRIP contract over Lockheed Martin [LMT] in February 2012. The protests should not impact the LRIP work.
Under full production, Northrop Grumman would have to compete with the other winning companies to build CANES.
CGI Federal did not provide a statement outlining its case as of press time.
The Navy, in awarding the full-rate contract, tapped the five companies to each produce one CANES system for a destroyer. The protests and subsequent stop-work orders could impact those plans, as well as SPAWAR’s intention to issue competitive task orders later this year.
SPAWAR said it was confident of the competition it held for CANES and was working to curtail the effect of the protests.
“CANES represents an essential element of the Navy’s modernization plan, including the enhancement of our afloat cybersecurity posture and increased operational effectiveness,” SPAWAR spokesman Steve Davis said. “We are confident in the source selection process and are working diligently to minimize any schedule impacts to the fleet.”
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) began earlier this month aboard the USS Higgins (DDG-76) ahead of 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.