North Dakota gets FAA radar data

North Dakota has become the first non-federal U.S. entity allowed to tap unfiltered Federal Aviation Administration radar data for drone flights. (ndit.nd.gov) The feed is now tied into Vantis, the state’s drone network, so operators can see continuous aircraft activity in nearby airspace during beyond-visual-line-of-sight flights. Beyond-visual-line-of-sight means a drone can keep flying after it is too far away for the pilot to see with the naked eye. (ndit.nd.gov) The Federal Aviation Administration announced the underlying agreement with North Dakota through the Northern Plains UAS Test Site on Oct. 8, 2024, at the UAS Summit & Expo in Grand Forks. The test site was the first participant in the federal radar data pathfinder program. (npuasts.com) Congress created that pilot in Section 905 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, which President Joe Biden signed on May 16, 2024. The law lets qualified users access certain airspace data feeds to support air traffic and uncrewed aircraft traffic management services. (faa.gov, congress.gov, npuasts.com) North Dakota officials say the richer radar picture is meant to let drones share airspace more safely with crewed aircraft while expanding routine flights over long distances. The state has pointed to emergency response, search and rescue, infrastructure inspection, agriculture, and rural service delivery as early uses. (ndit.nd.gov) The system behind that access is a secure “radar data enclave,” essentially a locked digital room that receives, stores, and processes federal airspace data. North Dakota Information Technology said its teams built protected network pathways, firewalls, and computing systems to meet Federal Aviation Administration security rules. (ndit.nd.gov, thalesgroup.com) Thales, the state’s private-sector integration partner, said it designed and implemented the Vantis Federal Radar Data Enclave, while North Dakota agencies and the Northern Plains UAS Test Site handled the state and federal coordination. The company said the hub went live in March 2026. (thalesgroup.com, ndit.nd.gov) North Dakota has spent years trying to turn Grand Forks and the Vantis network into a proving ground for routine drone flights over farms, pipelines, roads, and remote towns. This radar feed gives the state a federal data source it had been seeking since the 2024 pathfinder agreement. (npuasts.com, ndit.nd.gov) State officials are framing the next phase as operational, not ceremonial: use the live feed to run more repeatable long-range drone missions inside the national airspace system. The test for North Dakota now is whether that first-in-the-country access turns into regular flights at statewide scale. (ndit.nd.gov, npuasts.com)