By Geoff Fein
The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) is looking to issue its request for proposal (RFP) on or about Jan. 30 for the Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprises Services (CANES), a directed approach to reduce infrastructure and increase capability across afloat network enclaves, the Navy said.
SPAWAR issued a draft RFP in December and responses were due Jan. 9. It included requirements for the design, development, fabrication, assembly, test, delivery, integration, installation and sustainment support of the CANES Common Computing Environment (CCE) network infrastructure, according to the solicitation (N00039-09-R-0027).
The primary goals of the CANES program are to: consolidate and reduce the number of afloat networks through the use of mature cross domain technologies and common computing environment infrastructure; reduce the infrastructure footprint and associated costs for hardware afloat; provide increased reliability, application hosting, and other capabilities to meet current and projected warfighter requirements; and federate Net-Centric Enterprise Services, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Core Services to the tactical edge to support overall Department of Defense Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) application migration to a SOA environment, according to the solicitation at http://www.fbo.gov.
“The CANES piece is really about trying to get our common infrastructure so I can have plug and play software and applications on top,” Chris Miller, program executive officer (PEO) for C4I, said in an interview last year (Defense Daily, June 12).
A number of defense companies are working on CANES efforts, including Boeing [BA], Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Raytheon [RTN].