The U.S. Navy plans to update information technology tools the service uses to maintain its fleet of ships as part of a larger effort to protect the vessels from cyber threats, Federal News Radio reported Thursday.Jared Serbu writes the project seeks to procure new IT products meant to replace more than 100 legacy shipyard systems and applications.
The Navy wants a platform that handles repair schedules, spare parts security, financial management, workforce planning and other tasks throughout every phase of ship maintenance, according to the report.
Bruce Urbon, program manager for the Navy Maritime Maintenance Enterprise Solution-Technical Refresh program, told a conference that the applications “were developed over time in a very stovepiped fashion by various organizations, they were never designed to interoperate and it’s very hard to keep them cyber-secure,†the station reports.
“It’s a growing concern within the Navy that these systems are going to fail, and that’s going to have an impact on fleet readiness and getting ships ready to deploy,†Urbon said at the Naval IT conference hosted by AFCEA’s Northern Virginia chapter.
