Broader federal investment in quantum sensing needed to outpace China, industry report says

The tech industry needs more funding from the U.S. government—not just the Pentagon—if it is to outpace China in the quest for quantum sensors, whose national-security implications include ground-based replacements for aging and vulnerable GPS satellites, an industry group argues in a new report.

Currently, the U.S. government spends about $900 million on quantum sensing each year, most going to the Defense Department.. An increase is needed, according to the report, which was produced by the industry-driven Quantum Economic Development Consortium with funding from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

By boosting the nascent quantum-sensing industry and its efforts to serve domestic markets from aeronautics to energy, the report argues, these increases will help answer defense leaders’ years-old calls for new instruments—quantum magnetometers, gravimeters, and clocks—that don’t rely on vulnerable signals from space to provide navigation and timing data.  

A recent Quantum Economic Development Consortium, QED-C, workshop brought together over 100 experts to outline how quantum sensing technology can enhance position, navigation, and timing, or PNT, capabilities. Perhaps the biggest insight to come out of the meeting: federal spending to help the quantum sensing industry has to grow beyond the Defense Department. 

“Federal investment would support the technology’s initial development and ultimately its broader adoption and scaling. Additionally, collaboration among federal agencies could lead to increased standardization of quantum sensors,” the report notes. 

Celia Merzbacher, QED-C’s executive director, told Defense One in an email: “The state of quantum sensing is still at a relatively early stage. Government funding will accelerate the pace and ensure that the stringent requirements for government use cases such as military and space applications, e.g. to operate in extreme environments, will be met. Government funding will accelerate progress.”

One of the chief challenges is that quantum sensing tech makers right now are focused on very, very specific customers, like labs and academic research centers. Those labs need sensors for special experiments so the quantum sensing industry, to the extent that it exists, is all over the place in terms of parts or even the function of the technology they are putting out. That makes it hard for the government to come up with standards that new players can use to guide their choices on what to make and where to find parts and components. A lack of standard testing also makes the business case for quantum sensors harder—at least for anyone not in the Defense Department. 

“Standardized performance metrics, which are essential to enable the sensors to demonstrate their advantages over classical sensors and drive their adoption. Comprehensive testing is needed to accurately assess the current state of the technology. But a lack of testbeds for quantum sensors makes it nearly impossible to collect the performance data necessary for setting standards or showcasing capabilities,” the report says. “Federal funding of testbeds could dramatically accelerate both quantum sensor development and technology adoption.”

The workshop’s participants also said that federal funding should go to photonic integrated circuits to “address the size, weight, power, and cost… issues.”

They said the federal government should work harder to be an “early adopter” not just the Pentagon, but especially the Department of Energy Department and NASA. “Early adoption would not only advance the technology’s reliability but also position the government as a primary driver in creating cost-effective, scalable quantum solutions for national security needs,” they wrote. 

Of course, that’s easier said than done, at least politically. While both parties agree on robust funding for the Defense Department, continued funding for other agencies like Energy is more controversial and could be cut next year depending on the outcome of the presidential election. 

China, conversely, has been investing heavily in quantum sensing. It has even overtaken the United States—at least in the number of published research papers on the topic, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s tracker of critical technologies.