UK government tests quantum-inertial navigation technology

The UK has successfully completed commercial flight trials of advanced quantum-based navigation systems that cannot be jammed or spoofed by hostile actors.

While GPS jamming is currently relatively rare and does not directly impact an aircraft’s flight path, new quantum-based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) systems could, over time, offer one part of a larger solution to providing highly accurate and resilient navigation that complements current satellite systems – which could help ensure that the thousands of flights that take place around the world daily, proceed without disruption.

Infleqtion, a quantum technology firm, in collaboration with aerospace companies BAE Systems and QinetiQ, completed the trials at MoD Boscombe Down in Wiltshire, with Science Minister Andrew Griffith aboard the final test flight on Thursday 9 May.

These tests are the first time that this sort of ground-breaking technology has been tested in the UK on an aircraft in flight, and the first such flights worldwide have been publicly acknowledged.

www.infleqtion.com