Lockheed, Northrop reach milestone in multi-billion dollar competition
By
Nick Wakeman
Navy CANES project to consolidate ship-based networks heads for the next phase in the battle between the two defense giants.
Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman have reached a key milestone in a multi-billion dollar Navy program.
The Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (CANES) recently completed critical design reviews for the competing teams.
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CANES is a $1.8 billion program to consolidate five shipboard networks into a common computing environment.
Lockheed and Northrop each won contracts in March 2010 and are competing for the work.
The next phase, according to the Navy, in the engineering and manufacturing development phase of CANES is the test readiness review. That will review will determine if the competing systems are ready for the contractor system integration test, prior to selection of a single design.
The first CANES installation on a fleet destroyer is planned for late in fiscal 2012, according to the Navy.