Royal Navy Tests Out Quantum Positioning System for GPS-Denied Navigation

 

The Royal Navy is testing out a new positioning system that is wholly self-contained, like a typical inertial navigation system but with much higher accuracy. If successful, it offers the possibility of more reliable navigation in GPS-denied environments.

A GPS unit needs to receive satellite signals for operation, and since the signals are comparatively faint, it is possible for a malicious actor to interfere with the operation of GPS at regional scale by broadcasting a false signal at higher power. This can be seen today in parts of the eastern Baltic and the northern Black Sea, where interference (widely attributed to Russian jamming) is a matter of routine. 

Skilled mariners can navigate without GPS, and have for centuries, but manual methods are more time-consuming and less precise. For high-stakes and high-budget applications, inertial navigation is a useful backup. Off-the-shelf inertial navigation systems (INS) use a set of gyroscopic sensors to measure every tiny change in the vessel's speed, then add up all the changes to estimate the current position. There is a catch: the measurements are imperfect, so the estimated position becomes imprecise within a matter of hours unless it is corrected with an external update, like a GPS fix. 

For at least two decades, researchers have suggested that there might be a way of building an INS with far more precision - using quantum technology. When atoms are cooled to near absolute zero, they exhibit quantum behavioral changes in response to the least amount of motion. Those changes can be measured and used to calculate a position, just like with an INS. The main practical problem is getting atoms cooled down to absolute zero without bringing along massive, power-hungry equipment to do it. 

The Royal Navy believes it may have found the key to this challenge, thanks to UK quantum startup Aquark Technologies. Aquark recently loaded out one of its miniature cold atom systems onto the Royal Navy patrol vessel HMS Pursuer for trials. Aquark's technology was developed at University Southampton, and it cools atoms down to near absolute zero using lasers alone, without the need for power-hungry magnetic fields. Its system is compact and light enough that it has been flown on a drone for testing, and easily fit aboard HMS Pursuer.
 
"Quantum technologies being developed in the UK will offer an alternative Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) capability necessary to operate effectively in GPS denied or degraded environments," said Commander Matthew Steele of the Office of the Chief of Technology Officer (OCTO). "Over the next three years, the Navy seeks to accelerate the development of quantum technologies – such as Aquark's – through funding and sea trials, to secure the Royal Navy an opportunity to invest in a non-GPS-based PNT capability."

Earlier this year, Aquark secured $5.5 million in pre-seed funding in a round led by the NATO Innovation Fund, the first time that the fund has made an investment in quantum technology. It also has backing from EU institutional investors and from missile builder MBDA. With the extra funding, it is pursuing efforts to further miniaturize its breadbox-sized system into something even smaller and more portable.