You’ve heard about quantum computing and may already know tons about sensing, but how much do you know about quantum sensing?
In simple terms, quantum sensing uses quantum mechanics to create ultra-precise sensors that measure physical properties like magnetic fields, gravity and temperature with superior accuracy. Quantum sensing relies on superposition and entanglement principles to detect signals that are imperceptible to traditional sensors, many of them analog sensors. The promise for use in medical and scientific research is vast, but also for navigation and security and defense applications.
In one futuristic scenario, a network of space-based quantum sensors could be used by the US Navy to detect the faint signature of a hostile submarine as it travels underseas. As one expert described it in National Defense, the submarine data would be transmitted instantly via a secure quantum communication channel to an AI command-and-control node. Then the AI could be potentially sped up by a quantum analyzer and analyze the data, then model the submarine’s probable course of action. What happens next could include an autonomous directive to unmanned underwater vehicles to intercept and neutralize a potential threat.
As Arun Seraphin, executive director at NDIA’s Emerging Technologies Institute, described it, these technologies would force a shift in defense doctrine where naval power is no longer measured mostly by the number of ships or their size, but instead by “the superiority of the fleet’s sensor network, the sophistication of its AI and the security of its data links…Strategic advantage will belong to the side that can most quickly and accurately sense, decide and act.”
While it all sounds like a grand scenario, National Defense pointed out that creating and integrating quantum sensors, AI and data security will be an organizational challenge as human commanders move to embrace the technology, which will require cultural change, alterations to career paths and advanced training for officers and sailors. In other words, the technology is not an automatic replacement for human skills.
Seraphin noted that industry players are already accelerating the shift to these new technologies with the building of uncrewed warships where a hybrid fleet will blend human crews with autonomous platforms for greater resilience.