Defense Unicorns Joins U.S. Navy's CANES Next Gen Modernization Effort
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 27, 2025 — Today, Defense Unicorns, the leader in airgap software delivery for national security mission systems, announced it has been awarded a contract to support the U.S. Navy's Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (CANES) Next Generation modernization effort. As the Navy's Program of Record for afloat network infrastructure, CANES is deployed on ships, submarines, and shore sites, with Defense Unicorns bringing its airgap-native UDS platform to rapidly deliver software and cyber resilience across the fleet.
The Challenge: Modernization at Sea
Today's shipborne networks struggle under the weight of bulky systems, resource constraints, and integration bottlenecks, preventing modernization velocity from matching operational needs. Software updates can take months, and field support is expensive and inflexible. Meanwhile, operators face a mounting burden from unintuitive systems, administrative downtime, and cybersecurity threats, all under the growing urgency to make ship refits faster and less manpower intensive.
Defense Unicorns' effort directly supports strategic Naval technology priorities, including DevSecOps, Zero Trust Architecture, and resilient edge computing, as recently outlined by the Department of the Navy's Chief Information Officer.
UDS: Purpose-Built for Disconnected Operations
Defense Unicorns does this through UDS, a proven, airgap-native DevSecOps platform, purpose-built for disconnected and classified environments. With a declarative infrastructure-as-code model, robust automation, and modular delivery, UDS allows the Navy to integrate software once and deploy anywhere, scalable across submarines, destroyers, carriers, and every mission platform in between.
Software that once took months to field can now be packaged and deployed in days. Sailor-driven operations are supported through intuitive command line interfaces and mobile app workflows. Built-in zero-trust architecture enables secure operations across multiple enclaves, while SBOM-driven provenance ensures that updates remain verifiable, even in denied, degraded, intermittent, or limited (DDIL) communications environments.
"Making software a strategic deterrent means equipping the sailor to see, decide, and act faster. By modernizing CANES with tools warfighters can deploy and trust, we're helping the Navy make faster, more informed decisions, at sea and under pressure. That's how software wins wars."
Rob Slaughter, CEO of Defense Unicorns
Empowering Sailors with Modern Tools
By giving sailors the tools they need to operate, adapt, and win in today's dynamic threat environment through intuitive, modular, and secure software products, Defense Unicorns is helping the Navy reduce downtime, simplify updates, and respond faster. This pioneering effort focuses on actionable design concepts aligned with the Navy's goals for a more modular, scalable, and sailor-friendly afloat network, laying the groundwork for future modernization across platforms and the Joint Force.
Get Involved
Reach out to learn how we're delivering software as a strategic deterrent at hello@defenseunicorns.com
About Defense Unicorns
Defense Unicorns is a service-disabled veteran-owned defense technology company founded in 2021 to make software a strategic deterrent for the U.S. Department of War. The company builds open-source, airgap-native technologies that enable the secure development, delivery, and sustainment of mission software across cloud, on-premises, and tactical edge environments. Defense Unicorns' technology is trusted by the operators of some of the most critical systems in the world, including the U.S. Navy, Army, Air Force, and Space Force. Learn more at https://defenseunicorns.com.
