UND, Northern Plains UAS Test Site awarded Air Force contracts [Grand Forks Herald] Dec. 13—The United States Air Force has awarded four contracts to UND and the Northern Plains UAS Test Site to help develop unmanned aerial systems. The Air Force awarded the contracts under its Agility Prime initiative, the goal of which is to develop small, agile and low-cost unmanned aerial systems to support basic Air Force missions. NPUASTS, UND and the UND Aerospace Foundation were awarded contracts to develop technology to assess the risks of hazardous weather to drones, as well as to develop detect and avoid such weather systems. The contracts were awarded in the first phase of a three-phase program.