The U.S. Air Force Has it’s Paws in All the Quantum Cookie Jars
Rather informative write-up on the U.S. Air Force’s work in quantum computing. Author Brandi Vincent covers the gamut from workforce development to cutting edge lab efforts and finally, fieldability initiatives. Worth the read at the source, link below. Because Quantum is Coming. Qubit
Inside the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Contemporary Quantum Pursuits
+ A growing team of officials within the primary research and development center for the Air Force and Space Force is helping the U.S. strategically inch closer to what could be life-altering science and technological breakthroughs via quantum information science.
“There’s a lot of great work on quantum. It’s a very exciting technology being pursued worldwide. But we also have to keep in mind, there’s still a lot of science, and a lot of research and development that needs to be done to really make it a reality—and different quantum technologies are going to come to maturity sooner than others,” he [Michael Hayduk, AFRL] said. “We talked about the clocks and sensors coming to maturity sooner, maybe in the 5- to 10 year-range, but computing and communications we see kind of as 10-plus years out, as well. So, we certainly need the long-term investments in the U.S. to continue to make quantum feasible.”
+ Even as quantum applications are far from fully realized, fieldability is another area of intense focus for AFRL. RIMPAC, or the military’s Rim of the Pacific, is an extensive naval exercise that occurs every two years. For RIMPAC 2022, the lab has been preparing to link up with the Office of Naval Research to test out QIS technologies with the Five Eye intelligence alliance, or America, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. They’ll combine components like gravitational sensors, radiometers, magnetometers, inertial sensors and electric field sensors with clocks, and also with Hayduk referred to as an open, plug-in-play type architecture—to ultimately push forward advancements in precision, position, navigation and timing.
+ “The best-case scenario is some of those companies that we funded, say, in the quantum sensing area or quantum timing area, we can see the technologies being further developed with this STTR award—and then really going into things like the RIMPAC demonstration, as well,” Hayduk said, noting that the ultimate aim is to make quantum technologies practical in as quickly of a timeframe as possible.
Source: Nextgov. Brandi Vincent, Inside the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Contemporary Quantum Pursuits…
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