Drone Replacement Program Overview

Beyond the Buzz (Episode 20) - Drone Replacement Program Overview  

Erin Roesler 

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Beyond the Buzz hosted here at the Hive in Grand Forks, North Dakota. My name is Aaron Roesler. I'm the deputy exec director for the Northern Plains UAS test site and excited to bring some pretty fun conversation today; we're going to be diving into North Dakota's drone replacement program. This is one of those programs and conversations where, you know, policy really meets operations, so I'm going to be talking about the history of this program which cites all the way back to a legislative bill last biennium that was passed. So, kind of the process and the conversation behind the bill, how it moved through the legislative process and then ultimately resulted in the program that we see today; this program though isn't just about North Dakota.  What we've seen in the last calendar year since the drone replacement program was started has been this national movement on looking at securing our skies through finding NDAA compliant equipment. So, today I am really happy to be joined by two experts in this field that have been living this bill from conception all the way through the program. Now, first we have Representative Mike Nathy who's going to be, , joining us, who was the original bill sponsor, and then, Annie Andrea Santos, who is the program manager for the drone replacement program that we have here in North Dakota. So, first of all, thank you guys for joining us today.  

Mike Nathy  

Thanks for having us.  

Annie Santos   

Thanks for having us. 

Erin Roesler  

 So, as we dive in here, I'm going to back up a little bit. Now, I know firsthand because I lived and breathed some of the pain of trying to get this bill through the floors to see the live program. And I know Representative Nathy; you did as well. So, let's start at the beginning. When the concepts for this bill were first thought of, what was the problem we were trying to solve here in North Dakota? 

Mike Nathy  

 Well, you know, it first came up from some conversations I had from representatives in the UAS industry here in North Dakota. And so, just some casual conversation and it came up through that conversation that the drones that the state currently owns were DJI Chinese drones. And I was not I was not all up to speed what that meant. and come to find out that after doing a little bit of homework 88% of our drones were DJI and the what the implication of that was and it was really an eye opener for me the day that I met with these representatives. So, I dug into it working with the people in the state and said, "Hey what do we have here?'' Once I found out what was there, we worked with some UAS representatives in the state to help craft a bill and to help replace the drone fleet for North Dakota. This bill was groundbreaking. A lot of other states had done some of the drone replacement, but only for certain portions of their fleet, maybe for law enforcement or maybe for EMS.  this bill was doing the complete whole fleet from A to Z. And that was a pretty big undertaking, a pretty big thing for a lot of the agencies to get their minds around. So, when we did this, obviously the question is why do we need to do this? What's the big hurry here? And for me, the big thing was the security of the state. Our information was going overseas. You know, the North Dakota flies' drones through its state operations over our highways, over the oil fields that we have. We have several air bases here. We have two legs of the nuclear triad here in North Dakota. Drones flying around those up at the border railroad. So, these things are very important and to have any possibility of them flying over and constantly soaking up information and having that pushed out to a foreign adversary did not sit well with myself and others. And so, we crafted the bill, and we had support from across both aisles of the bill, and that was it was done kind of quickly. Once we wrote the bill and I had it out there, got it out to the public and to my colleagues, then government Governor Bergam had a I wanted to put an addition on it 20 million for the FAA data for North Dakota to jump on the FAA data stream and that really sped up because that was time sensitive and so we put that onto the bill. Also, we had kind of an all-encompassing UAS bill going into the session, and that was a pretty big challenge because we had to do it run through the process quicker than normal. We have a four-month process here every other year that we do. And in the House, we had hearings for it.  We went through it and within the first five days of the session, we passed it out of the North Dakota House of Representatives where I sit. I'm a chairman of a committee on appropriations. We've sent it over to the Senate, and the Senate had a really hard time with the speed of it.  had some problems with the money and quite frankly just had to get them up to speed on what's going on. So, it was a big challenge, but we were at the end of the day able to get it across the finish line.  

Erin Roesler  

And as you mentioned, it's a complex issue because yes, at the heart of it definitely comes from national security concerns.  Not only here in North Dakota, but nationwide. This was a language that was in first a national bill, so the National Defense Authorization Act and has since been reinforced as we saw the NDAA, you know, 2026 come out you know this last winter.  so national security, public safety, but some of the other complexities to this was the supply chain risk. So, you know, you talked about the speed of the bill a little bit. Was that on your mind at the time? Were concerned about supply chain, what kind of timeline were we up against in North Dakota to get ahead? 

absolutely.  

Mike Nathy  

That was absolutely top of my list and that was one of the selling points I had for my colleagues is you know why do we need to do this right now? Why are we why do we have to be the first state, and I was trying to get across to them that if NDAA goes across and these drones are banned that there's going to be a run on supply. Let's pass this bill and let's be the first one in front of the supply chain and get it going and so we don't have to sit here and wait and try to get replacement drones or drones that work through time. And again, it was a challenge to get across the urgency of this.  The supply chain was very big; it was a very big issue and quite frankly was a good selling point for us to do that.  Not everybody believed that these drones were of concern. A lot of a lot of my colleagues had drones like these on their farms and worked them and they didn't believe that they would be banned or that there was even a possibility of them being banned in North in this country and I can tell you since then a lot of pe I've talked to quite a few have been absolutely shocked that to see what has happened and obviously they're happy to see what we've done but at the time it it's a big learning process when it comes to legislative process and to a lot of these legislators and just like I had a big learning process in the beginning that summer before you have to get them to that point where they're comfortable with this. And then the other big part was the money portion of it.  Again, because of the speed, the Senate had a really hard time. We originally started at $15 million, and we ended up at $9 million. And quite frankly, the Senate did kill that part of the bill. They passed the FAA portion, which was extremely time sensitive.  but they had killed the drone replacement bill in the Senate. And in the second half of the session, again, I chair a committee. I was able to bring that bill back word for word and put it into the commerce budget where it sits anyways and put it back in there, and we were able to move it and get it passed. 

Erin Roesler: 

So, when you drafted the bill, let's go back to before all you know different steps of getting the bill, you know, passed, but when you drafted the bill initially, what did success look like from that program that you drafted?  

Mike Nathy  

Well, quite frankly, the success bottom line was re getting a pass signed and then getting the process going through the test site getting those drones replaced and giving the test site all the tools and help that they need to accomplish that.  you know, legislators are pretty much bottom-line guys at the end of the day and the bottom line is you know what's success? let's get let's move out these DJI drones, the Chinese manufactured drones and let's put in US drones or are drones that are made from favorable countries. So that's really the definition of success on this bill. And I wanted to make sure that we gave the test site all the tools and help and everything that they need to make this successful. Sometimes we do bills and budgets that aren't always perfect, and then we learn along the way what needs to be fixed or what maybe we did something. So, so success is getting this going and from what everything I'm I've been told so far, we're on the right path right now.  

Erin Roesler  

Yeah. You mentioned the change in the funding as the bill moved through.  Were there any other compromises or clarifications that were critical in getting this bill passed?  

Mike Nathy  

 Well, obviously we had to compromise on the money. The $15 million and I'll be honest with you, the $15 million was kind of just we penciled some stuff out and just kind of came up with a dollar amount to make sure we had enough. At the end of the day, 9 million seemed to be that we could still do it for 9 million. Maybe it wasn't quite the buffer there that we wanted. And quite frankly, if we can't quite get there at the end of this two-year period, we'll have another opportunity to help make it go forward. But it is our intention that everything that the drone replacement program will complete its mission by next June 27th. You know, there were a couple of hiccups along the way. There were some people who tried to put at least in the house on an amendment. There was a company that had some patches. They thought they could go around it, not get rid of the drones and put some electronic patch on there, some software patch and everything I was told was like, "No, the patch doesn't work." But it did g up the work and so we had to deal with that, and at the end of the day when the bill came back in my hands that was not in the bill. So, the biggest compromise though Erin was the financial part of it. Operationally, the bill pretty much stayed the same from the day we started. 

Erin Roesler  

So for the other states that are watching this, because you talked about a few of the different compromises, the steps of the process, how it really moved through the legislative process, would you have advice for those other states about navigating this process or if they're considering similar legislation in their states? 

Mike Nathy  

 Yeah, my first bit of advice would be to talk to your UAS representatives' industry representative industry experts in the UAS field. I did here in North Dakota to help write the bill because legislators are not experts in this field. We're not experts in a lot of fields, although we think we are, but when we wrote this bill, I sat down with the experts in the UAS field in North Dakota and helped, and we wrote this bill together. And I wanted to make sure it was simple and make sure we covered our bases, wasn't too complicated for the industry to interpret and to carry out the mission and to accomplish the goals that we wanted to do. So, I had a lot of help with the industry's reps in coming up with the bill because let's face it; I don't work in that industry. They do and they know what they know what to look for. They know what not to do. And it made the bill that much stronger because the legislators didn't know it. Quite frankly, they looked at two things. The money and do we really need this? Is this Chinese threat really? Is it real? And those were the two biggest hurdles we had to face. So definitely have an industry involvement in writing the bill because every state is different; every state has their regulations and has some local input is huge.  

Erin Roesler  

 Perfect. So one thing I think is important to note here is that passing the bill was just the first step, you know, was just the very beginning of getting this program to really come to light. So, Annie, I'm going to ask you a few questions whereas you considered this bill and saw this language. It really came down to implementation where this will work, or it won't work. So first, when the bill passed, what did you just inherit, and what did implementation mean?  

Annie Santos  

 Well, before I jump on that, I want to take a moment to thank Representative Mike Nathy and the test site leadership for enabling the bill to move forward. I also want to thank the Department of Commerce and the governor's office for their support.  The drone replacement program, as we call it, DRP, is a first of its kind, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to help support its implementation. When the legislation passed, I didn't inherit a turnkey program. I inherited an intent. The bill was very clear on why. Replace all non-NDA compliant agencies across the state. But implementation for a program like this really means turning something that lives on a drawing board into something that actually works in the real world. with the strong leadership support from the state governor's office and department of commerce we were empowered to design and execute at the same time early on we had to get very clear on our objectives assessment procurement and decom decommissioning of the legacy system and we had to set up a project plan schedule and a way to track our progress to make ourselves accountable to make each other accountable. So, in a lot of ways, it's like laying tracks while the train is already moving so to speak aligning process and real-world process so the program could work on the ground. 

Erin Roesler 

So in moving into implementation then what was maybe the first three things that you and your team had to figure out?  

Annie Santos 

 We had to quickly answer three questions.  Which agencies are eligible so that we could target our outreach; what exactly is being replaced?  And how agencies are using drones because I'm sure they're using it in different ways.  The answers to that question really shaped everything that followed.  

Erin Roesler  

 Okay. So, let's start with the first one. You said what agencies are eligible for. So how did you define eligibility?  Let's start with first were the agencies.  

Annie Santos  

So eligibility is defined by the bill. So, we kept it very straightforwardly.  Right now, the program is limited to state northern Dakota state agencies and university system entities. For drones' eligibility is defined by a set criterion again defined by the bill and the program guidance. The system must be non-NDA compliant. Meaning that the drones do not meet the federal security requirements around where the drone is or where its components are made.  The drones must be owned by an eligible agency and that they purchased prior to January 1st, 2025. Lastly, the agencies must be willing to turn them in to get something new.  

Erin Roesler  

Fair enough.  

Erin Roesler 

Right to actually replace and eliminate the threat that we're talking about here. do you feel that there were any operational challenges that came up you as we started really considering and tackling those binary issues that maybe the legislative legislation didn't take into account for or you know maybe addressed but didn't really dive down to the level of details that you've now uncovered as we've moved into implementation.  

Annie Santos 

 Yes. And there's a few  

Erin Roesler 

 Okay 

Annie Santos:  

but I like to frame it this way. Okay. So, the legislation sets out the direction right, but execution reveals the complexity. The objective is clear that we will replace non-compliant drones across the state. But once we got into implementation, we started uncovering questions that the legislation couldn't answer in detail. So, one of the biggest challenges right off the bat was defining what replacement actually means. This is in a one-to-one swap.  and it's not just about replacing an aircraft. Drones operate like a complete system. The aircraft controllers, sensors, batteries, and accessories all work together. So, we had to step back and think about hey what does this replacement actually means in real life practice?  ultimately that led us to treat replacement as a full transition system rather than a simple drone exchange.  We also run into an organizational complexity. Think of the university system within the university. There are different departments that use drones very differently.  So that raised the question initially on do we treat the university system as one entity or do we treat all these different departments as their own operational unit.  Ultimately, we decided on the latter option because it better reflected how the drones are used and managed on the ground.  

Erin Roesler:  

True.  

Annie Santos:  

Lastly, the replacement priority.  Because the funding is limited, we develop a framework, our replacement strategy along with our partner MITER to make sure the state gets the maxim benefit.  

Erin Roesler:  

 Sure. So, try to keep it a little bit fair and equitable or at the very least meet what's most important for not only the state of North Dakota but the citizens of North Dakota as well.  

Annie Santos  

 Correct.  

Erin Roesler  

 and you mentioned this and I want to go back to this because I know personally, I've answered the question of what is the, you know, it's not one for one replacement truly mean. And what I think you and your team have done a great job articulating and explaining is that it's about matching and meeting their capability.  

Annie Santos 

 Correct.  

Erin Roesler: 

Right. So, I'm because my background came from an academic institution. I'm going to look back to that kind of flight training environment if I have you know three drones and eight batteries now; I might not get three drones and eight batteries out of this program, but what's my operational need? My operational need is to conduct back-to-back flight training for eight hours a day, right? So that's my capability that I need because my focus is flight training. I'm training all day with students and so my current systems might need eight batteries just because of how long it takes to charge, how long, you know, that they can last, etc. But under the program, maybe the replacement aircraft is I'll need two aircraft with only four batteries because batteries have longer endurance, they're faster charge or whatever. But the end result is if I had to do flight training for eight hours, I'll still be able to do flight training for eight hours. That's what we really mean by that. And I think that took a while for some of these agencies to really grasp it. Would you agree on that?  

Annie Santos  

Yes, that's correct. And shout out to a technical team because they're they really are the ones to figure out what this equal and matching capability means. Yeah. So, rest assured for the agencies that participated you will be able to continue the same operation as if you were you know as before. 

Erin Roesler 

So, as you've been implementing the program, what have you learned about the demand from these state agencies?  

Annie Santos  

So, the demand for the drone replacement is very high; we've seen a very high participation rate across the state, surprised us a little bit, but in a good way, big drivers are federal funding restriction. So, agencies can no longer use federal funds to procure or operate non-NDAA compliant drones. So, for many agencies, it's one or two drones that they have to replace. For some, it's a full fleet.  

Erin Roesler:  

And by full fleet, you're meaning five, six, 30,  

Annie Santos 

more than that, right? Depends, but yes, so we've seen either from one to 50, you know, that we had to consider part of the program. So conceptually, agencies understand why the shift is happening. Where readiness really varies is on the operational side. Some agencies, you know, are prepared. They've had time to step back and think about what this compliant really means to them, but for some they focus on the day-to-day operations. It's business as usual for them. And I think this is where the drone replacement program DRP is making an impact because it's helping bridge that gap. The program creates well creates a pathway for them that's funding their structure training and a process for agencies to move forward, and one thing I didn't fully anticipate upon reflection is that I'm really grateful for is how much it sparked broader conversation among the state agencies and a state level, you know, it's not just about replacement. It's helping agencies step back and think, hey, how can I improve my drone operations in the future? agencies this program as an opportunity to upgrade their fleet, an opportunity to scale or advance their operations, lean in onto Vantis, lean into the test sites expertise and really make an informed decision about where their drone operations are heading. 

Erin Roesler  

Sure. you talked about and for me in aside from the national security risk and the safety risks that we talked about the risk to federal funding because in the state of North Dakota and I remember pulling up some of these stats you know a year ago when this bill was being discussed and evaluated that across the board the state of North Dakota relies on billions of dollars of state funding. So when you talk about potentially putting at risk billions at the cost of a small number of millions to offset and maintain and ensure that we don't disqualify ourselves from obtaining those billions that that to me was another huge selling point of the importance of this program, in the work that you did initially to talk with the agencies, understand their need, do we come up with exactly how many, you know, dollars would be at risk if these aircraft were not replaced?  

Annie Santos 

 Not exactly, but they are in the high millions.  

Erin Roesler 

 So, a worthwhile investment is the easiest assessment.  

Annie Santos 

Yes. 

Erin Roesler  

 Good.  So, if another state wanted to replicate this bill or in this program, what would they need to understand from your perspective?  

Annie santos 

 three things really stand out. First, the coordination effort, the program is just as much about the people processing the governance structure as it is about the drones. It requires coordination internally within our program team across all participation agencies and there have been 35 departments or agencies that participated in between organizations. So, during procurement we work very closely with the office of management and budget, and we enjoy working with them and North Dakota information technology. And so that level of inter-agency collaboration requires time and intentional effort. Second is the time to take things credibly. We invested a lot of time up front setting up our structure our replacement strategy or procurement strategy, and that effort paid off by saving us time later on. And lastly, I can't emphasize that this enough is that this has been a true team effort. Balancing compliance funding isn't something one person or one organization can do. That requires close collaboration within you know participating agencies state leadership, test site leadership and industry partners. So, if you're watching please sign up that's really allowed the more the program to move forward. You know that shared ownership of the program is really what helped us get to where we are now.  

Erin Roesler  

Perfect. So, a couple of questions for both of you now., so for those NDA compliant drone manufacturers, which we didn't even talk, no one's mentioned blue or green yet, which is surprisingly you know, so NDA compliant definitely includes the blue, definitely includes the green list, but it's more than just that. 

Annie Santos 

Yes.  

Erin Roesler 

So, for NDA compliant drone manufacturers that are out there watching this, you know, how can they engage? Let's first talk from the legislative level. So, you know, , Representative Nathy, from your perspective, what's the proper role for a drone manufacturer to engage?  

Mike Nathy  

 Well, the proper path, and I've had some reach out to me since the bill was passed, is I, you know, quite frankly, I refer them to the, to the Commerce Department or to the test site, and really to the test site is really where they should go. The test site is administering this program. And I just want to say after listening to Andrea, I just want to thank Andrea and the test site staff for doing a wonderful job. They were given legislation. We passed it and said, "Here, you guys make it work." And they're like, "Thanks." Because they have all these other things that we don't know. And it's really impressive to hear speak this morning about some of the challenges and some of the good things about the bill, some of the other things we didn't know about the bill, and they're making it work. And I just want to give them a big shout out for that. But yeah, any of the manufacturers that should be watching this morning should definitely get in touch with the test site and your people there can take them by the hand and walk them through the process and u I think Andrea might have a better answer than I but that in a nutshell that would be the easiest way.  

Erin Roesler  

 Well, okay then Andrea, how would you answer if they now picked up the phone and called you?  how can how can they get involved in the program? 

Annie Santos  

 So for the program the supplier fat starts with a pre-qualification process. The state of North Dakota is doing a really cool thing. So, we're building a qualified pool of NDAA compliant products and products already on the blue list administered by DCMA and the green list administered by AUVSI.  Those products are already pre-qualified.  but we do  

Erin Roesler: 

 so that's huge, right? For those that are on those lists becoming pre-qualified. Okay. So then for anyone that's not on the list, what's the  

Annie Santos  

so we do recognize that there are products out there that or suppliers, there are still going to be viable supplies for the state of North Dakota. So, if you're a manufacturer with NDA compliant products, we strongly encourage you to participate in the pre-qualification process, and that's how we identify additional platforms and expand a qualified pool of products for state agencies. All of the details are on the state procurement website. It's called NDICE. and that's where you could engage and start first.  This is in a one-off procurement. So, like I mentioned that the state of North Dakota is building a qualified product list that agencies can rely on for their future. 

Erin Roesler  

beyond the life of the program.  

Annie Santos: 

 Yes.  

Erin Roesler  

 So, not only, and I'll segue into this question for Representative Nathy here, but so not only is this a list that we're going to be using for procuring equipment under this $9 millions of funding, but if state agencies in the future beyond this program, outside the scope of this program, needed to obtain equipment, they would now have a list that shows what is actually NDA compliant. Right. 

Annie Santos  

 Yes.  

Erin Roesler  

 Awesome.  

Annie Santos  

And so we're looking for manufacturers who see this as a long-term partnership with the state of North Dakota.  

Erin Roesler:  

 Awesome. Okay. So, Representative Nathy, what does long-term success look like then? Is this just a one-time replacement effort, or is this a start of a broader policy or procedural or procurement discussion?  

Mike Nathy  

 Well, I think that question is going to be yet to be answered. I have the feeling it's going to be the beginning of a broader policy as we go along.  You know, since we passed the bill, I've had people from local governments reach out and say, "Hey, help us with our county's drones. It was our state drone city drones and those sorts of things." And those are discussions we'll have later on down the road. And I had to tell them one step at a time here.  You know, we're working on the states this the state issue right now. I think the success of the program can be defined by not only upgrading the drones and making them NDAA compliant. but also, from a North Dakota perspective to make sure that these drones can jump on the Vantis system that the state of North Dakota has worked alongside and invested in. And that's really how this question came up. I found out during my conversations early on that none of the drones were on the system because they were DJI. So, I think that's part of the measure of success is getting these the bill encourages these agencies to put these drones on Vantis system. I also think the economy of scale I think there's as Andre knows there's and she mentioned it some agencies only have one or two drones and they maybe use them once you know three four times a year. Others like DOTS26 and they use them constantly. So maybe there's some sharing of drones and helping financially rather than having 350-some-odd drones. Maybe we have a little short, smaller number, but are able to do the exact amount of work. So, I think there's a way I think the long-term success of this program looks great.  I'm even more enthused about it after hearing Andrea speak this morning and on the right path, and I can't wait to see a year from now when we're back in session to get an update and see where we're at.  

Erin Roesler  

 Yeah, a lot has happened in that year, too. And so, I want to just I'll pause and go on my own soap box here. When we talked about this a year ago, we had a few different signals from the Department of Defense, Department of War, entities that were, you know, raising the national security risks associated with non-NDA compliant equipment.  The NDA language was there, but it was a little TBD if it was going to hold, or there was a growing sentiment that that that deadline would be, you know, pushed to the right and pushed into the future. But as the months moved after the legislative session closed, we saw two executive orders, one on drone dominance and one on airspace sovereignty that really reinforced the concerns in the NDA language. But it didn't stop there. We then saw Secretary Hegseth issued a memo that doubled down, reinforced and moved up in some cases the deadline that we saw in the NDAA language.  That was further reinforced by the new NDA language, so 2026 language that pepped the dates for compliance and really articulated how important it was to remove and replace the operation of this non-compliant equipment. And then on top of that, which in our last Beyond the Buzz we talked about, was the FCC ban that has now come out, which goes beyond just the federal use of some of these drones, but into the private use and the citizen use of some of this equipment as well. So, you know, I know firsthand a year ago, I never would have predicted all those different events from unfolding within the calendar year. But as we closed out and I reflected on 2025. This was one of those programs that maybe the state of North Dakota and those legislators that voted in favor of this might have stuck their neck out a little bit, you know, and took a risk, but man, did you guys bet right.  So, this is me. Thank you to those that trusted you know trusted us as we talked about this bill. It was you know a little bit forward learning. But it paid off in spades and spades and spades as a result because we as a state were right and, I can say, I know I'm getting engagement from a whole host of other states, we've had some national media that has come out of this and so to the legislators that supported this, a sincere thank you. You took a risk, you bet right, and you're setting up not only the state of North Dakota government, but the citizens for success as a result. So, a huge thank you to you. 

Erin Roesler 

 So, in closing, go ahead,  

Mike Nathy  

Andrea. Real quick in I'll make a quick along those lines. during the process of this the four months there was a very high ranking DoD official now Department of War that was reaching out to me through a third party and obviously I'm I I'm not at liberty to say who it is I actually referenced it on the floor during the debate but he kept he would go through this third party and said you tell Mike he's on the right path he is exactly on the right path and I got to tell you that really buoyed me because again this is not I'm not a national security expert and to get this from a and if I said his name you'd know him And I was very enthusiastic and knew we were on the right path to do this and it does help us to go forward with a little bit more confidence to do that. So, it was quite moving to have that and to have this person from overseas monitoring this bill, and it just raised the level of awareness to me and the level of importance of what this program meant and, that's why this is, holds dear to my heart.  

Erin Roesler  

The final question I have for both of you, short answer, what's next? What's next for this program?  

Annie Santos  

 We're moving through the procurement process, so we're looking at Q2 to finalize contracts and as I mentioned before, this is not just about replacement. We're also going to be organizing trading for state agency pilots, which is exciting.  

Erin Roesler  

And Representative Nathy, it sounds like you're already having conversations on what's next. So, if people have ideas and thoughts and needs, are they picking up the phone and calling you to say what they are. 

Mike Nathy  

Yeah, local governments are I have not too many from the agencies.  some of the agencies I've talked to have been very pleased with what the test site's doing.  As we go forward, I'll be reaching out to the test site and say, "Hey, what's working? What's not working? Are there some things we need to do next session to enhance this program?"  let let's see where we're at. And we'll come up, you know, whenever we do these landmark legislation bills, Erin, a lot of times we miss things and so we'll find out if there's some things that we need to improve or need to address, and we'll come up with legislation to do that.  

Erin Roesler  

 Excellent. Well, to both of you, thank you for your time today. I really appreciate you being here; it is exciting because this is just another example where North Dakota is not just talking about securing drone operations and the drone ecosystem, but we're doing things. We're operationalizing it and putting it into action. So, again, for me, this program isn't just about getting secure equipment. It's about protecting our government information, you know, the systems that these drones connect into.  ensuring that we secure operational continuity that these drones, you know, the previous equipment of drones wouldn't be at risk from being or being you know, disabled at a moment's notice and then greatly crippling our state's ability to respond to any event, right?  but third then you know Annie, you mentioned this on the funding side of really ensuring that we protect and maintain our federal funding sources that we as a state rely so heavily on.  so, all those things it's been a wild year since this bill was first discussed to seeing it here today, if you're another state that's trying to figure this out, phone lines are always open. We're here to talk, that's what North Dakota's, welcome to share on. If we heard if you're an NDA compliant manufacturer, if you have questions on how you can be a part of this program, reach out to us as well, otherwise again, thank you Representative Nathy, thank you Andrea, and thank you everyone who joined us on this Beyond the Buzz. And we'll see you next time.