WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy on Thursday added CGI Federal Inc and DRS Technologies Inc, a unit of Italy's Finmeccanica SpA, to an umbrella contract valued at up to $2.5 billion (2 billion pounds) to update the electronic networks on its ships.
The two companies will join five others selected in August to provide work under the Navy's Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (CANES) contract, it said.
The CANES system will consolidate Navy electronic networks and provide the infrastructure needed for more integrated operations.
The seven firms will compete for work under the large contract.
The five other companies are a unit of Britain's BAE Systems (LONDON:BAES) Plc, General Dynamics Corp, Global Technology Systems, Northrop Grumman Corp (NYSE:NOC) and Serco Inc, a unit of Britain's Serco Group (LONDON:SRP) Plc, the Navy said.