The North Dakota House has approved a measure to replace Chinese-made drones in the state fleet.
The state has 353 drones, 307 from China.
The sponsor – Rep. Mike Nathe (R-Bismarck -- said he was told by some federal officials that the Chinese drones were equipped with data gathering and transmitting devices.
"These drones are flying over these communities, over the oil fields, over the missile sites, the air bases, everything," Nathe said. "I asked them, how many of these do you think may be bad and have these devices, and he and a gentleman who is a retired special forces both said the same thing — all of them."
The cost to replace the Chinese drones will be about $15 million.
The measure also contains $11 million for access to Federal Aviation Administration radar data.
"This helps us two ways," Nathe said. "This helps the state to fly our drones wherever we want. And also helps us to market Vantis to other states."
Nathe described Vantis as a “control tower” that watches and monitors drones in the air. He saidys it was developed at the state’s UAS Test Site.
The vote was 89 to 4. It will now be considered in the state Senate. Nathe said the hope is to “fast track” the measure.
