QuantX Labs has announced that it has secured $750,000 funding for development of a secured position, navigation, and timing (PNT) capability for defence applications.
Current PNT signals, such as those provided by GPS, are vulnerable to covert spoofing, where malicious actors can transmit false information to disrupt military activities without detection.
The "Quantum-Secured Time Transfer for Resilient PNT" project seeks to address this issue by harnessing quantum technology to guarantee the authenticity of received PNT data.
"Quantum-secured time transfer offers a new level of security and accuracy for defence operations," said Dr Martin O’Connor, General Manager at QuantX Labs.
"We are excited to embark on this research journey, which has the potential to safeguard our troops and assets in contested environments."
This project builds upon the success of a previous grant from the Defence Innovation Partnership grant, which brought together experts from the University of Adelaide, QuantX Labs, and the Defence Science and Technology Group.
The new project encompasses several crucial objectives including demonstration of quantum-secured time transfer using entangled photons, development of a classical two-way time transfer across a free-space link, and investigating the impact of loss and turbulence on both time transfer methods.
The project will culminate in a demonstration of quantum-secured time transfer over a free space optical link, which will be used to synchronize small Chip Scale Atomic Clocks that are suited for drone and satellite deployment.