Limited network consolidation on U.S. Navy ships completed

SAN DIEGO, June 2 (UPI) -- Limited deployment of a C4I network that consolidates five legacy shipboard network programs has been completed by Northrop Grumman for the U.S. Navy.

The consolidation took place under the Navy's Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services, or CANES, program for a modernized common computing environment across the fleet for enhanced cybersecurity, command and control, communications and intelligence, or C4I, and streamline logistics.

"We are honored and proud to contribute significantly to this critical component of the Navy's modernization plan," said Sam Abbate, vice president and general manager, command and control division, Northrop Grumman Information Systems. "By maximizing commonality, Northrop Grumman has delivered dozens of affordable, highly capable shipsets to enable warfighter information dominance."

Northrop Grumman won the contract for the design and limited-production run for CANES in early 2012. A total of 37 shipsets were delivered. Several aircraft carriers and cruisers and multiple destroyers were involved.

The company leveraged its cyber expertise and also applied its modular open systems approach to achieve the lifecycle benefits of open systems architecture and commercial off-the-shelf components and software.

"The Navy used one of our CANES configurations and applied it to a destroyer and a cruiser, demonstrating the flexibility of our design to reduce network variants by ship class," Abbate said.