Source: United States Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
BISMARCK – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, participated in Dakota Digital’s Fall Discussion moderated by Mark Hagerott, PhD, Chancellor of the North Dakota University System. The webinar focused on his recent op-ed, “North Dakota’s Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Ecosystem is Critical to Keeping Up With Our Adversaries.” Excerpts and the full video are below.
On North Dakota’s UAS Ecosystem:
“The UAS ecosystem right here in North Dakota is contributing mightily to how we fight wars, how we defend the country, how we defend liberty around the world, and we’re seeing that being played out in lots of ways right now in Ukraine as well as other areas.”
“The people that settled North Dakota were innovators from the very beginning. They had to solve big problems just to survive much less make a living on these harsh Great Plains of ours. So the Unmanned Aerial System ecosystem is pretty natural to North Dakota. [We’re] intellectually up to the task for sure. [We’re] problem solvers. We’re pragmatic people. We’re collaborative people. What I’ve seen in the UAS space is really that same pioneering culture, that same pioneering spirit, and we’ve seen it flourish.”
“We have this system in place in North Dakota in the context of national security, but I don’t ever want to dismiss the opportunities that this ecosystem has provided for the private sector and commercial use. We’ve seen that really explode over the last few years whether it’s precision agriculture, maintenance programs at technical colleges, degree programs at universities, or additional research and development taking place at both the University of North Dakota and North Dakota State University. It’s really remarkable to see what’s happened and what’s going to happen. This is very forward-looking technology. We are very forward-looking people and I think we brought a lot of attention to what’s possible in North Dakota.”
On North Dakota’s Military Assets & Space Force:
“North Dakota’s military assets are perfectly positioned for [the] future [of] warfighting. Whether you’re talking about Minot Air Force Base with the B-52s, which are getting new engines and new long range standoff weapon systems… or Grand Forks with its ISR missions… or the Happy Hooligans down in Fargo. The future of warfighting is in some cases literally in space. We have a base in Cavalier with about 40 guardians with a very large legacy radar that was built specifically for monitoring incoming missiles. That radar also monitors space junk since the Space Force was stood up, which I was honored to carry that ball in the National Defense Authorization Act a couple of years ago. It was one of those things where President [Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence] wanted a Space Force because they saw the importance of the space domain as a warfighting domain. Other countries, our adversaries, particularly Russia and China, were already very engaged in that… I like to say ‘the speed of China’ is the standard we have to beat every single day.”
Background:
Earlier this month, the Dakota Digital Review published an article by Senator Cramer highlighting the critical role North Dakota has played in deterring adversaries since the beginning of the Cold War thanks to the UAS ecosystem.
“If we are going to keep up with China, the U.S. will have to build off North Dakota’s success story. What we are doing will have a substantial effect on how we keep up with China and the rest of the world when it comes to UAS technology. And, North Dakota is setting the example for how other technologies need to grow,” wrote the article.