The Department of Defense has opened up its networks to BlackBerry’s Z10 and Q10 devices running BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10.

Deemed “Authority to Operate,” the designation means the DoD is building out its infrastructure to support BlackBerry devices and expects to support 10,000 BB10 devices by this fall and 30,000 by the end of 2013.

BlackBerry issued a press release announcing it is the first OEM and Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution to be granted “Authority to Operate” by the DoD.

The thumbs up from the DoD comes as good news after a rough late 2012 for BlackBerry’s relationships with its core enterprise and government customers. Last October, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement turned away from using BlackBerry devices and invested heavily in providing its more than 17,000 employees with iOS devices.

BlackBerry has made moves to extend its security beyond its own mobile platform. In June, it launched Secure Work Space for iOS and Android, which extends BES10 capabilities to separate work and personal apps and data on iOS and Android devices.