Why does the Pentagon want quantum sensors and advanced clocks?

The US Department of Defense plans for quantum computing technology and its related hardware to be incorporated into its military equipment, used for purposes such as intelligence gathering, target identification, keeping machines in sync, and functioning without conventional navigation aids.

The Pentagon has started Farseer, a Defense Innovation Unit project built around advanced quantum sensors and atomic clocks. The July program is aimed at improving assured positioning, navigation, and timing, or A-PNT, across intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems.

The clocks in modern ISR systems must be extremely precise because information coming from various sensors has to be correlated properly. Synchronization is critical for communications as well as for military systems functioning in air, ground, maritime, space, and cyberspace domains.

DIU put it this way: “The invisible backbone of modern ISR is absolute precision timing and synchronization, which enables seamless sensor fusion, secure communications, and coordinated multi-domain effects.”

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