Navy Beefing Up At-Sea Enterprise Network.

• Author: Machi, Vivenne

SAN DIEGO--The Navy is working to make its enterprise networks more agile and easily updated as the service prepares for future multi-domain conflict with near-peer competitors, officials said.

Rear Adm. Christian "Boris" Becker, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command commander, said that the service should feel "a renewed sense of urgency" as Pentagon leadership calls for a pivot to great power competition with countries including Russia and China.

"The fact that we need to be ready for war next week does not mean we take our eye off the ball or let the ball drop" with regard to creating long-term capabilities, he said in an interview with National Defense. "Rather, you should not waste your time today."

Conflict already exists within the cyber world, he added. "Whether it's criminal activities or potentially other [malicious] activities, we have to be ready for those sorts of things today."

The Navy is moving forward with developing its next-generation tactical afloat network which will enable the service to better streamline its technology for information warfare, Becker said. The consolidated afloat networks and enterprise services, or CANES, program will combine legacy shipboard, submarine and shore-based command, control. communications, computers and intelligence, or C4I, network systems into one entity to increase capability and affordability across the fleet, according to the service.

"We have got to... turn CANES into the information warfighting platform," Becker said at the annual WEST conference in San Diego co-hosted by the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association and the U.S. Naval Institute.

Northrop Grumman won the full-deployment production contract in 2014. The indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple award contract has a potential value of $2.5 billion over eight years, according to the company. The Navy anticipates that the systems will be operational across the fleet by 2023.

CANES will be installed on all Navy platforms, including ships, submarines and land sites. The program will eliminate many legacy standalone shipboard networks and provide a common computing environment for a range of C4I applications, according to Northrop Grumman. This will help strengthen the network infrastructure, improve security, reduce its existing hardware footprint and decrease total ownership costs.

CANES will provide "the infrastructure and services required for the Navy to dominate the cyber warfare domain,"...