A team of dermatologists at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, California has conducted an allogeneic mesenchymal stem cell procedure on a U.S. Navy veteran, marking the first such operation at a U.S. military treatment facility.

The Navy said Wednesday physicians used stem cells from a donor’s bone marrow to address the patient’s skin damage during the medical procedure.

John Trafeli, head of the dermatology research division and the Training and Research for Project Comprehensive Advanced Restorative Effort at NMCSD, led the stem cell transplantation initiative.

The effort marks the start of a clinical trial at the naval hospital that seeks to explore the potential use of regenerative medicine for people who have traumatic brain and musculocutaneous nerve injuries and dental diseases, the Navy added.

NMCSD and biotechnology firm StemCutis initiated the stem cell study as part of a collaborative research and development agreement.

The medical center will host the 2016 Project C.A.R.E. Summit that will be held from September 7 to 9 and feature developments in restorative and regenerative medicine across the military, private sector medical communities.

The Federal Aviation Administration has published extensive materials to help unmanned aerial system operators prepare for the implementation of a new rule governing the use of small non-recreational drones.

FAA said Thursday its Part 107 rule, set to take effect Aug. 29, will require people who fly commercial drones to either obtain a remote pilot certificate with a small UAS rating or be directly guided by an operator that holds such certificate.

Applicants for the certificate must pass an initial aeronautical knowledge test at an FAA-approved knowledge test center or have an existing non-student Part 61 pilot certificate, which FAA issues to those who have completed a flight review within the last two years and a UAS online training course.

The Transportation Security Administration will also conduct a security background check on all remote pilot applicants before the agency grants certification, FAA noted.

The “Knowledge Test Prep Part 107” compilation of materials is available on the FAA’s website.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-d1RuTFvbs&feature=youtu.be

The Defense Department has released a nine-page document that details DoD’s plans to update its information technology infrastructure and build up its cybersecurity posture, Signal magazine reported Thursday.

Sandra Jontz writes Terry Halvorsen, DoD chief information officer, introduced Thursday the “DoD Information Technology Environment – Way Forward to Tomorrow’s Strategic Landscape” document that seeks to advance the Joint Information Environment concept as one of the agency’s eight goals.

DoD plans to carry out JIE capability programs that include the implementation of the Joint Regional Security Stacks, updates to the Defense Information Systems Network Transport Infrastructure and migration to an enterprise-wide defense model.

According to the document, the Pentagon aims to build up partnerships with industry and mission partners through the expansion of the IT Exchange Program, which will assign 50 government civilian employees to serve in private companies and 50 industry employees to perform DoD roles by the end of fiscal 2017.

Halvorsen’s office will work to update the accreditation and certification process and move DoD’s networks to the Microsoft-built Windows 10 operating system by the second quarter of FY 2017 in an effort to address cyber threats, according to the paper.

The agency also aims to set up an on-premise cloud managed service by the fourth quarter of FY 2017, the document said.

DoD’s milCloud platform will not “be the backbone of what provides us our enterprise services,” Halvorsen, an inductee into Executive Mosaic’s Wash100 for 2016, told news media roundtable participants.

“There is no single cloud answer for DoD; there is no single cloud definition for DoD,” he added.

Other goals included in the document include the consolidation of DoD data centers, implementation of a two-year plan to end the use of common access cards in information systems and efforts to increase communications bandwidth in the agency’s information network.

The Government Accountability Office has recommended that the U.S. Army update the service branch’s policies for virtual training devices as well as define the process for device effectiveness analysis and integrate the devices in training strategies.

GAO said in a report published Tuesday it has discovered gaps in the integration of virtual training devices into operational training on front-end analysis, effectiveness analysis and linkage with training strategies.

Auditors said the Army has made progress towards its goals to support a broader range of military operations and has began to implement five programs designed to define training requirements and resources as well as change training processes.

GAO noted it has also identified nine Army training priorities including environment training to replicate complex battlefields units will face during combat.

The study was conducted on selected devices worth worth $535 million in acquisition costs as part of provisions from accompanying House and Senate bills for the fiscal year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act to review the Army’s training plans use of virtual training.

A partnership within the U.S. Army has started to update the service branch’s intelligence processing facility to add another classified network designed to facilitate intelligence collection and reporting operations, the Army said Wednesday.

The service branch’s Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center has collaborated with the Distributed Common Ground System-Army to equip the latest version of the DCGS-A Intelligence Processing Center 2 with the National Security Agency network.

Lee Wyman, DCGS-A operations specialist and project lead for IPC-2, said the NSANet seeks to provide brigade command team, corps and division commanders with mobile servers.

The NSANet would be in addition to the IPC-2’s existing Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System and Secret Internet Protocol Router Network.

Wyman also noted that the IPC-2 is situated in a shelter and is linked to a high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle.

CERDEC’s command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance prototype integration facility performs engineering and integration work on the new IPC-2 and expects to finish the initial prototype in fiscal 2017.

CERDEC’s C4ISR PIF and DCGS-A will conduct a weight and physicality test of the latest IPC-2 in September and transition the facility into full rate production at the Tobyhanna Army Depot once the prototype is completed.

Other modifications to the shelter include the integration of a soldier workstation, installation of an Improved Environmental Control Unit and addition of a power entry panel.