Military researchers ask industry to integrate rugged quantum sensors aboard moving vehicles for navigation
ARLINGTON, Va. – U.S. military researchers are asking industry to find new ways of installing rugged quantum sensors quickly aboard military aircraft, ships, and land vehicles.
Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., have issued a solicitation (DARPA-PS-25-11) for the Robust Quantum Sensors (RoQS) program. RoQS seeks to bring quantum sensors to U.S. military platforms.
Military applications
Quantum sensors are expected to benefit aerospace and defense applications like navigation, environmental monitoring, and medical imaging that are far beyond what today's traditional sensors can achieve.
Quantum sensors use quantum mechanics to achieve high sensitivity and accuracy by harnessing quantum entanglement, superposition, and tunneling to detect minute changes in physical quantities like magnetic fields, gravitational waves, or temperature.
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Quantum sensors outperform classical sensors for measuring magnetic fields, electric fields, gravity, acceleration, and rotation. Despite these benefits, quantum sensors mounted to moving vehicles like aircraft, ships, and land vehicles are vulnerable to electromagnetic fields and vibrations, resulting in shorter sensing times, reduced sensitivity, and overall degraded sensor performance.
The RoQS program will use design approaches that involve photonic systems or solid state systems. While quantum sensors have demonstrated exceptional laboratory performance in magnetic and electrical fields, acceleration, rotation, and gravity, their performance degrades once the sensor is placed on moving planes, ships, and vehicles.
Problems with quantum sensors
Problems arise with quantum sensors on moving military systems because of electrical and magnetic fields, field gradients, and system vibrations.
RoQS seeks to overcome these challenges by developing quantum sensors that inherently resist performance degradation from platform interference, and demonstrate them on a military land, air, or maritime vehicle. RoQS seeks to switch RoQS-developed quantum sensors onto U.S. military platforms and programs of record.
RoQS will take a two-pronged approach. First, the program seeks to find prime systems integrators able to help with quantum sensor integration, and second, to find the best ways of integrating quantum sensors on select military systems.
The RoQS program consists of two phases and two technical areas -- the first to develop an inherently robust sensor and integrate it onto a platform; and the second to conduct a platform integration study.
Where to send proposals
Companies interested should submit unclassified abstracts no later than 20 Feb. 2025, and proposals no later than 31 March 2025 to the DARPA BAA Website online at https://baa.darpa.mil.
Email questions or concerns to DARPA at [email protected]. More information is online at https://sam.gov/opp/c0368342762645a794d66341be88dfba/view.
John Keller | Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.
