Northrop Grumman Successfully Demonstrates CANES Capabilities

Wednesday, Jul 01, 2009

CANES, the Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services, will streamline and update shipboard network systems to improve interoperability and affordability across the fleet, significantly reducing development, deployment and lifecycle costs.

The demonstrations, held June 17 and 18 at the Northrop Grumman Command and Control Futures Lab, were designed to exercise the capabilities of the Northrop Grumman CANES prototype during typical operations aboard ships and at network operations centers ashore.

The Navy will evaluate the results of the demonstrations as part of the ongoing competition for a CANES solution.

The CANES Surface Platform Prototype is an integral part of the Northrop Grumman Command and Control (C2) Futures Lab in San Diego. The laboratory was designed by Northrop Grumman's strategic partner, Applied Minds, Inc., a Glendale, Calif., company that invents, designs and prototypes breakthrough products, technologies and solutions for both industry and government.

"The C2 Futures Lab is part of a company-wide network of research and development nodes across the country that link capabilities in state-of-the-art cyber security, command and control applications, information systems, ship system design, and business innovation," said Michael Twyman, vice president for Integrated Command and Control Systems at Northrop Grumman. "The physical and virtual environment created by this connected community brings Northrop Grumman, our teammates, and our customers together in new ways to solve challenging problems."

"Every design detail in the C2 Futures Lab aims to bring engineering models and decision-making tools to life, with the ultimate goal of fostering the kind of innovative thinking that leads to the best solutions," said Bran Ferren, co-chairman and chief creative officer of Applied Minds.

Northrop Grumman is teamed with IBM as its major technology and services partner on CANES. The Northrop Grumman-led team also includes key small-business partners Atlas Technologies, Charleston, S.C.; Beatty and Company Computing, Juno Technologies, and Syzygy Technologies, Inc., all based in San Diego; and CenterBeam Inc., San Jose, Calif.

The goal of CANES is to consolidate and replace numerous legacy systems and deliver an open, common network to every ship, submarine and shore-based command and control center in the Navy. A subprogram of CANES, Afloat Core Services, decouples development of software so that it is modular, reusable and interoperable and can be updated more quickly and frequently.

Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading global security company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, shipbuilding and technical services to government and commercial customers worldwide.

Source: Northrop Grumman