The U.S. Army and Navy have tested communications between at-sea and land units using manpack radios and the Mobile User Objective System waveform during an exercise Thursday.

Personnel onboard an Army supply vessel in Hawaii used manpack radios and the Joint Battle Command-Platform to support data, images and voice communications with users in five separate locations, the Army said Friday.

“The manpack radio and MUOS waveform, along with JBC-P, enable soldiers to not only share enroute mission command information, but to also know where friendly and enemy forces are located,” said Col. James Ross, the Army’s project manager for tactical radios.

The demonstration for the Pacific Theater at Fort Shafter involved a logistics vessel that carried a manpack radio and an antenna attached to its communications system, the Army said.

According to the service branch, JBC-P then uses the Blue Force Tracking II satellite to track locations in order to display graphics and data to users.

The platform works with the Army’s Nett Warrior mobile device attached to the manpack radio.

“The ability to project and sustain forces from over the shore is an essential capability in the Pacific Command area of operations and a critical component of a multi-dimensional logistics network,” said Maj. Gen. Edward Dorman III, commander of the 8th Theater Sustainment Brigade.

“Enhancing the communications capability will improve how we conduct inter-island surface deployment support, add flexibility to cargo transportation options for the joint force and rapidly respond to crisis throughout the region, including humanitarian assistance situations.”

The Federal Aviation Administration will impose regulatory or criminal sanctions against operators of small unmanned aerial systems that are not registered with the agency, The Hill newspaper reported Monday.

Keith Laing writes FAA’s mandatory online registration for civilian drones that weigh less than 55 pounds ended Friday.

The agency has recorded 368,472 registrants and said unregistered drone users could face a civil penalty of up to $27,500, up to three years in prison or a criminal fine of up to $250,000.

“Besides being required by law, registration provides an excellent opportunity to educate yourself if you are new to aviation, and it will help you become part of the safety culture that has been the hallmark of traditional aviation for more than a century,” noted FAA Administrator Michael Huerta.

FAA set a three-year validity period for each registered UAS.

U.S. Army scientists have launched a phase 1 clinical trial of an experimental vaccine against the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, DoD News reported Feb. 17.

Cheryl Pellerin writes researchers at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research will administer the GLS-5300 vaccine in 75 trial participants at the institute’s clinical trial facility in Maryland.

Inovio Pharmaceuticals and GeneOne Life Science teamed up to develop the DNA vaccine candidate against MERS coronavirus.

“One of the benefits of a DNA vaccine is that you don’t need any kind of culture system, like eggs, and you can produce it very quickly,” said Kayvon Modjarrad, the trial’s lead investigator and associate director for the emerging infectious disease research program at WRAIR.

Modjarrad told DoD News that the vaccine candidate could be used by the Defense Department as a countermeasure in an effort to protect U.S. service personnel in the Middle East against the virus.

MERS is a severe respiratory condition that has infected over 1,600 individuals since its discovery in Saudi Arabia in 2012.

Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services believe that a transparent reporting structure can be a tool to strengthen the cybersecurity posture of HHS and its component agencies, Federal Times reported Monday.

Aaron Boyd writes HHS recorded a total of 26,381 computer security incidents across the department’s four key components between January 2013 and September 2015.

Incident data obtained by Federal Times showed malware was the most common attack vector within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.

“One of the great things about this report and the other reports, tools and alerts that we have is we use them in aggregate,” Beth Anne Killoran, acting chief information officer of HHS, told the publication.

“While this might be one mechanism to alert us, we have others as well,” Killoran added.

She noted that HHS components also use the Einstein government network monitoring tool.

Eight African-American military leaders were honored at the U.S. Navy-hosted annual “Stars and Stripes” awards program in recognition of their contributions to the military and to the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields, the Defense Department reported Monday.

Chief of Naval Personnel Vice Adm. Bill Moran delivered the keynote speech during the dinner and awards program held Friday in Philadelphia as part of the 30th Black Engineer of the Year Award STEM conference.

C. Todd Lopez writes approximately 140 senior STEM professionals and active and retired service personnel also mentored over 300 students at the event.

The awardees are:

• Navy Capt. Mark Glover, program manager for Navy communications and global positioning system
• Navy Fleet Master Chief Petty Officer April Beldo at the office of the chief of naval operations.
• Navy senior executive Jimmy Smith, director of integrated nuclear weapons safety and security, strategic systems programs
• Army Brig. Gen. Carl Alex, assistant deputy chief of staff at the U.S. Army Forces Command
• Air Force Lt. Col. Keithen Washington, assistant director for officer commissioning programs at the office of the defense undersecretary for personnel and readiness
• Marine Corps Lt. Col. David Everly, junior military assistant to the defense secretary
• Coast Guard Capt. Jason Merriweather, chief of the office of military personnel
• Air Force Brig. Gen. Leonard Isabelle, commander of the Michigan Air National Guard

The U.S. Air Force has concluded a flight test of the Boeing-built Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile system.

The ICBM weapon platform with the test re-entry vehicle reached its target area in the Marshall Islands following its launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the Air Force said Friday.

Minuteman III is a land-based weapon system that works to deter nuclear threats.

Boeing collaborates with Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and other companies as part of the ICBM team that works to provide development, engineering, deployment and sustainment support for the Air Force’s ICBM weapon system.