SAN DIEGO, 13 Feb. 2009. Officials at BAE Systems formed a team to compete for a new U.S. Navy contract to consolidate dissimilar networks aboard naval ships into a common, secure computing environment, further ensuring mission success and reducing maintenance costs.
Company officials made the announcement at The Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) West conference and exhibition in San Diego.
Under the Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services, or CANES, program, commercial, off-the-shelf technology will replace legacy command, control, communications, computing, and intelligence (C4I) hardware and software systems unique to each Navy ship. The new systems will use a service-oriented architecture that allows commonality across platforms and easy insertion of new capabilities.
"The current disparate infrastructure requires significant budget to maintain and does not to provide the network bandwidth necessary for effective C4I operation," says John Jarman, vice president of C3I systems for BAE Systems in San Diego. "A unified information technology infrastructure among the Navy's 300 ships will enable sailors to better share intelligence across different security domains and reduce training costs."
The team consists of BAE Systems, Raytheon, and DRS Technologies. BAE Systems will provide systems integration expertise. Raytheon will furnish systems engineering, information assurance, maritime C4I hardware and electronics packaging, and integrated logistics support. DRS Technologies will provide maritime information technology equipment, isolation hardware, and production.
The team will co-locate at the BAE Systems C4I development center in Point Loma, Calif. The Navy is expected to award the CANES contract in December.
