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CANES program
manager Capt. D.J.
LeGoff briefing the
CANES program in
the SPAWAR exhibit at
the West Confence in
January 2012. West is
co-sponsored by AFCEA
International and the
U.S. Naval Institute.
Photo by Rick Naystatt/
SPAWAR audio visual
production specialist.
know that we have the industrial capacity
to do that.
Q: What yards are you going to use
A. I’m going to use AITs (alteration installation
teams); I’m not using the yards.
We’re contracting installation services off
SPAWAR’s contracts. SPAWAR has a multiple
award contract to do installation of
C4I gear. And we’ll go to whatever yard
the platform happens to be for its availability.
And that’s a typical strategy that
we use in the C4I world.
When a ship goes into an extended
availability, however many months it happens
to be, at one of the public yards,
we contract these alteration installation
teams to install our stuff.
Q: Do you already have your schedule for
deployment
A: We have a schedule for deployment
that identifies hull number and installation
windows that change very frequently
based on the ship’s schedule so
if ships get surged or their deployment
goes later, or they get sent to do something
that was unexpected, that perturbs
the rest of the schedule. But we use it
for planning purposes, and we update it
every quarter.
Q: Which ships have priority
A: I have multiple sets of priorities given
to me by different leaders.
Q: How do you rationalize your priorities
A: Well, first and foremost, go as fast as
you can. That is the direction I’ve been
given by the Navy leadership at the highest
levels. The faster we get the new infrastructure
out there, the faster we have
to stop supporting the legacy and stop
spending all that money, right So first
and foremost, don’t stop; go as fast as
you can. While you do that, try to prioritize
the older networks first.
So I mentioned we have networks that
have been on board ships for almost 15
years. We still have ATM networks on
ships, Asynchronous Transfer Mode on
ships. Almost impossible to support at
this point, can’t get parts for them, training
is difficult, they’re hard to use and
they’re old. So while I’m going as fast as I
can, I’m going to keep an eye out. If I have
more availabilities than I have ships and
I have to choose between platforms, I’m
going to choose the ones that have the
oldest network first.
It’s not a single legacy baseline that
we’re replacing. I’m replacing 20 odd
baselines that have grown over the years.
The latest ones that we’re fielding now,
we actually took a lot of the technology
that we thought was going to come into
CANES and we backed it into our legacy
design. So the ones that we’re installing
over the recent past are fairly modern
networks and are in good shape. It’s the
baselines that are 10, 15 years old that I’m
really anxious to get out of operation.
Q: You said you are using COTS equipment,
but there is vibration on ships and other
environmental factors. Is there a rugged
spec for CANES
A: We do have a fairly high specification
for the commercial gear; it’s within industry’s
capability and within their commer-
CANES Delivers
Systems Management
✔ Performance, availability
and service level managment;
✔ Fault, problem, incident and
service desk management;
✔ Configuration, change
and release management;
✔ Security, information
assurance and computer
network defense; and
✔ Capacity management.
Data Services
✔ Network support;
✔ Information management;
✔ Core infrastructure services;
✔ Network access(IPv4/
IPv6) capabable; and
✔ Information delivery.
Voice Services
✔ IP telephony;
✔ Mobile and stationary; and
✔ Secure and unsecure.
Video Services
✔ Video teleconferencing; and
✔ Video graphics distribution.
cial offerings. We don’t ask them to do
anything special for us. However, we do
integrate into racks, where the rack really
takes up the bulk of the environmental
protection. So we have to follow what we
call 501D specification, which is grade A
shock requirements for the system.
We [CANES] are a mission critical system
because we have mission critical applications
that rely on us. So that means that
the system has to be able to take a hit
and continue operating through damage.
That includes shock and vibration, high
temperature, high humidity; all of those
things are environmentally tested before
we field.
So that was part of our design criteria
we gave to the vendors. They had to
prove to us that their system would survive
those environmental conditions and
show us the test results.
Interesting question, again, why are
we different from shore We reject more
products because of environmental
shortfalls than we do because of performance.
The environment drives different
material conditions.
Q: You mentioned mission critical. Is CANES
going to run the ventilation system in the
ship or other life support systems Could it
combine with other shipboard systems Or
is it just specifically for warfighting systems
A: Currently in the installation of this
design we’re not doing the mechanical
[hull, mechanical and electrical (HM&E)]
engineering type of functionalities.
Q: Did you think you might take on those
other things I mean, if CANES proves to be
a good business case and design
A: Right, so there is a lot of dialogue
around that. I can’t predict right now
where that dialogue is going to go
because the functional owners of that
capability are in NAVSEA (Naval Sea Systems
Command) and not SPAWAR. There
are some that advocate consolidating
into a common design.
There are some that advocate going
further than that and consolidating to a
common single network. I’m personally
of the belief that we may in the near term
get to a common design so that an HM&E
network looks just like a C4 network, but
I don’t think that we’re ready yet to converge
the two into a single one.
Q: On the LPDs (amphibious transport dock
ship) and the flatbacks, does the CANES
upgrade include the Marines’ spaces
A: Yes.
Q: Marines on amphibs always feel they’re
getting the short end of the network stick.
A: It’s an ongoing discussion. I try to stay
out of the middle because that’s an operational
requirement issue. I do what the
requirements folks tell me the need is.
Fleet Forces works it out with the ACMC
(Assistant Commandant of the Marine
Corps) in terms of what the allocations are
between blue and green.
So the message that came out was not
written by CANES, it was written by the
fleet and it mentioned the Marines, here’s
how things are. Now, that’s just from a
critical perspective. The Marines also
come on board with their own software,
so we provide hotel services for that infrastructure
in both our legacy network and
our new network.
Q: Is there any exercise that you will be
participating in once you have a sufficient
number of ships that have CANES loaded to
test it out in the fleet
A: Not scheduled around the deployment
of CANES. So there will be ships with
CANES in fleet exercises because that’s
how they’re going to deploy. However,
my first test is going to be in-lab tests
with COMOPTEVFOR (Commander, Operational
Test and Evaluation Force). So the
operational test community is going to
do an operational assessment (OA) of the
network in the lab. We’re getting our lab
certified by a representative.
We’re going to load the system and
OPTEVFOR is going to do an evaluation of
how well it performs. And that’s a gated
function going into my Milestone C.
Once we pass the OA, then we do our first
installations. Once we complete our initial
installations aboard a fleet destroyer,
we’ll go into a formal at-sea operational
evaluation.
Go to the Space and Naval Warfare Systems
Command website for more information at
www.spawar.navy.mil.
ATLANTIC OCEAN (March 21, 2012) The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65), the guided-missile cruiser USS Vicksburg (CG 69),
and the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) participate in an replenishment at sea with the Military
Sealift Command fast combat support ship USNS Supply (T-AOE 6). Enterprise, Vicksburg, Porter, and Supply are deployed as part of
the Enterprise Carrier Strike Group supporting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 6th
Fleet area of responsibility. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Daniel J. Meshel.
14 CHIPS www.doncio.navy.mil/chips Dedicated to Sharing Information - Technology - Experience CHIPS April – June 2012 15