The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded Australian quantum tech company Q-CTRL two contracts for $24.4 million to develop next-generation quantum navigation systems for deployment on military aircraft, ships, and vehicles. This is a possible replacement for GPS, or the Global Positioning System, which recent events have shown is dangerously hackable and jammable.
Quantum navigation is just in time, if not already dangerously late.
In war zones from Ukraine to the Middle East, GPS jamming and spoofing is becoming a widespread reality. Just this past week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s plane was unable to land for over an hour due to suspected Russian GPS jamming.
“This award signifies the priority defense agencies are placing on the potential for quantum navigation solutions to deliver transformational national security capabilities that complement GPS,” says Thomas Loftus from Lockheed Martin, which will be working on the technology along with Q-CTRL.
Clearly, GPS is vulnerable. But is quantum navigation the solution?
Where GPS relies on satellite signals via radio, and is therefore easily jammable or spoofable, quantum navigation systems work by detecting subtle geophysical features like local variations in Earth’s gravitational or magnetic fields. Quantum navigation systems then compare what they’re seeing to preloaded maps, meaning no external signals are needed.
Theoretically, that makes quantum navigation immune to jamming and spoofing.
Q-CTRL says its system is built with AI-powered noise suppression, allowing it to function reliably even under extreme mechanical stress, electromagnetic interference, or g-force.
In other words: under conditions typical in combat aircraft or naval vessels.
A competing solution, inertial navigation, uses accelerometers and gyroscopes to calculate movement over time. Inertial navigation, however, tends to be vulnerable to drift: small errors that accumulate over time due to sensor noise and other errors. Q-CTRL says that Ironstone Opal, its quantum navigation system, achieves a staggering 111x greater positioning accuracy compared to high-end inertial systems.
Lockheed Martin’s involvement signals serious military-industrial commitment.
The company is one of the largest defense contractors in the world and makes the F-35 stealth fighter, the F-22, the C-130 Hercules, and multiple missile and satellite systems. Lockheed Martin will integrate Q-CTRL’s sensors across various defense platforms.
Ultimately, this matters for consumers too, not just the military.
GPS spoofing or jamming could impact commercial aircraft and handheld or car-based navigation systems just as easily as military or official craft. Assuming quantum navigation works well at scale, it could eventually be mass-produced and integrated for consumer uses as well. After all, GPS was once a DARPA project, as was the internet itself, touchscreen technology, and even voice assistants.
By 2030, analysts say, quantum navigation (a subset of quantum sensing) could be an industry worth $3-5 billion.
One drawback for military use: you need the preloaded maps to compare what the quantum navigation system is seeing in real-time. And enemy combatants are unlikely to make it easy for you to make those mappings in the first place.
