The U.S. Army Medical Materiel Agency will deploy a new portable digital radiography system developed for deployed medical, special operations and mortuary affairs units of the service branch.

The Army said Tuesday the PDRS is built to replace the branch’s legacy X-ray generator and accompanying computerized reader system.

The Aberdeen Test and Evaluation Center, Information Security and Engineering Command and Army Medical Center Department Center and School respectively conducted environmental, cybersecurity and operational tests on the system.

The PDRS integrated product team consists of the USAMMA National Maintenance Program, Marine Corps, Navy, Defense Logistics Agency‘s troop support division and AMCDCS’ Capabilities Development Integration Directorate.

PDRS is the Army’s first medical technology to obtain an authority to operate via a new process that integrates risk management and security activities into the system development life cycle.

Diego Gomez-Morales, a USAMMA equipment specialist, said the platform will be fielded with a training support package that includes a guide for operators and maintenance teams.

He added the Navy and Marine Corps will also implement the system as part of efforts to standardize military health systems.

The Government Accountability Office has called on the Defense Department to establish performance goals and associated measures necessary to evaluate the Pilot Mentor-Protege Program.

GAO said in a report published Tuesday that DoD’s office of small business programs should perform periodic reviews of the processes that service branches and agency components implement to approve agreements under the program.

The agency found that DoD failed to include in its annual reports on the program information on how mentors assist proteges to build up their capabilities.

GAO performed a random review of 44 of the 78 mentor-protege transactions as of June 2016 and predicted that 27 percent of those agreements lacked industry code, signature, date and other elements required by the program’s policies and regulations.

The Pilot Mentor-Protege Program is designed to provide incentives to defense contractors that act as mentors and offer assistance to their proteges – small disadvantaged firms – in order to help the latter compete for commercial and federal contracts.

The program received $28.3 million in fiscal 2016 funds and was renewed as a pilot initiative through Sept. 30, 2018, according to the report.

The Federal Aviation Administration aims to release an initial batch of facility maps for small unmanned aircraft systems by April 27 in a move to help remote pilots depict areas and altitudes near airports where UAS platforms will be allowed to operate.

FAA said Monday the maps are intended to guide drone operators when they apply for Part 107 airspace authorization and help the agency accelerate the application process.

The agency added remote pilots can use the facility maps to align their requests for small UAS operations to with approved locations and altitudes.

FAA expects to issue as many as 200 facility maps on April 27 and said database updates will coincide with the agency’s 56-day aeronautical chart production schedule.

Small drone pilots are still be required to submit airspace authorization applications via the FAA website to gain  controlled airspace access.