CHIPS Articles: SPAWAR Selects Vendors for CANES Delivery Orders

Each vendor will be awarded an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ), firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. The estimated cumulative value of the multiple award contract (MAC) is $2,529,500,000. This contract has an eight-year ordering period up to the contract award amount. There are no options. Contract actions will be issued and funds obligated as individual delivery orders. Funds will be placed on contract with an initial delivery order issued to each contractor on record at the time of award.

The vendors selected to compete for future CANES delivery orders are:

• BAE Systems Technology Solutions and Services, Inc., Rockville, Maryland.
• General Dynamics C4 Systems, Taunton, Massachusetts.
• Global Technical Systems, Virginia Beach, Virginia.
• Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Herndon, Virginia.
• Serco, Inc., Reston, Virginia.

CANES represents a critical component of the Navy's modernization planning by upgrading cybersecurity, command and control, communications and intelligence systems afloat. The increased standardization will reduce the number of network variants by ship class across the fleet.

"The operating systems that exist today on some of those legacy networks are not sustainable. CANES allows us to deploy current operating systems and then upgrade or stay current with future changes to those operating systems in a more cost effective and timely way." said Rear Adm. Christian Becker, PEO C4I.

"As we deploy CANES we create a platform where we can increase our speed to capability, and where we can control more effectively our cost of capabilities that ride on top of that platform. And then, of course, that brings with it our ability to defend our capabilities — our cybersecurity posture —in ways that are more effective both for cost and the mission," he said

Competition will be continuous under the full and open IDIQ MAC for the procurement of firm-fixed-price production and training units. The build-to-print delivery approach will leverage the CANES design and integrated product baselines established during the Engineering and Manufacturing Development phase. Lessons learned from the CANES operational testing continuum and initial platform installations will allow for evolution and update of the CANES production baseline.

For the next eight years, the Navy will leverage the best of industry and government expertise to meet the challenges of developing and delivering multiple CANES hardware and software baselines in the most affordable means available.

CANES Initial Operational Test and Evaluation began Aug. 11 aboard USS Higgins (DDG 76), which will support a Full Deployment Decision expected in third quarter FY 2015. The Full Deployment Decision will authorize the program to continue to Full Operational Capability.

During the initial stages of the Limited Deployment phase, CANES installations have been successfully completed on nine destroyers. Installations continue on three carriers, one amphibious assault ship, eight destroyers, one landing dock ship and one cruiser. An additional 28 installations are planned throughout FY 2015 and FY 2016.

To date, the program's system maturity is based on performance measures and test data from almost 12,000 hours of cumulative test time. CANES installations aboard destroyers account for more than 15,000 hours of operational time.

CANES will ultimately be deployed to 180 ships, submarines and Maritime Operations Centers by 2022.

For more information on the CANES program, including imagery and videos, please visit http://www.public.navy.mil/spawar/PEOC4I/ProductsServices/Pages/CANES.aspx.

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