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Defense

New possibilities in quantum-enhanced C4ISR to change the future

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TIME Names Q-CTRL's Ironstone Opal One of the Best Inventions of 2025

Quantum-based navigation system ensures planes and ships stay on course during GPS attacks.

Launch and deploy real-world quantum solutions

The defense and aerospace industries require advanced computing, navigation, and surveillance technologies to maintain an advantage on the battlefield. Quantum technology can deliver a strategic edge to every aspect of modern defense, now and into the future.

Q-CTRL is the global leader in delivering real-world outcomes to transform defense missions.

Solutions for ISR

Turn situational awareness into strategic advantage

Quantum sensing is rapidly becoming a mission-critical technology for surveillance and reconnaissance, enabling capabilities far beyond the limits of classical systems. With quantum sensors you can navigate without GPS, detect underground hardened structures, submarines, or hidden weapons systems, and survey the entire earth.

Our solutions actively advance a broad range of defense applications, empowering mission success in the most challenging operational domains.

And we’ve achieved what no one else has before.  We have unlocked true quantum advantage in GPS-denied environments—delivering the first real-world benefits from quantum sensing.

Contact us about dark drone detection, magnetic anomaly detection and mapping, and underground target detection.

Gain a validated quantum advantage in real fielded environments with the Q-CTRL difference

50X

Quantum Advantage over classical INS

< 0.03%

Uncertainty of distance travelled over hours of flight

20X

enhanced resilience on moving platforms

Solutions for advanced computing

Outmaneuver the competition with a quantum computing advantage

Advanced computing technology is essential to maintaining a battlefield advantage.

Quantum computing promises revolutionary capabilities across the defense sector, with the power to crack encrypted messages, solve critical materials-science problems, or unlock the key to ultra-high-performance aviation fuels.

We deliver the most advanced quantum infrastructure software and edtech tools to make quantum computing useful for the defense sector.

We have proven defense use cases like contested Army logistics, optimized manufacturing supply chains for defense technology, and dramatically improved the performance and utility of quantum computers so anyone can gain true strategic advantages in the real world.

Real-world use cases

Q-CTRL

Delivering quantum advantage to airborne systems

Q-CTRL’s Ironstone Opal delivers GPS-free quantum navigation, achieving 94X better performance than INS in real-world flight and ground vehicle trials.

94X

improvement over the performance of a strategic-grade inertial navigation system in real flight tests

Read the case study

We achieved an accuracy in some trials comparable to a sharpshooter hitting a bullseye from 1,000 yards away. But because our quantum-assured navigation system allows a vehicle to position itself accurately irrespective of how far it’s travelled, by analogy that sharpshooter can hit the same bullseye no matter how far away they move from the target.

Michael J. Biercuk
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
,
Q-CTRL
Australian Army

Improving Army logistics with quantum computing

With Fire Opal, the Australian Army tested and validated a quantum computing solution on real hardware that promises to outperform their existing methods.

12X

improvement in the likelihood of finding an optimal solution with Fire Opal over the default hardware execution

Read the case study

Optimally routing 120 convoys can take more than a month of classical computation. The Australian Army is evaluating the potential of quantum computing to provide improvements; however, it’s been difficult to validate the feasibility of a quantum solution due to hardware noise. With Fire Opal, an algorithmic enhancement software, we are able to achieve results on quantum computers that build confidence in our quantum roadmap.

Marcus Doherty
Australian Reserve Officer
,
Australian Army

Frequently asked questions

Q-CTRL has demonstrated that quantum computing can deliver on defense use cases like contested Army logistics, and optimized manufacturing supply chains for defense technology. A wide variety of other applications in materials science, chemistry, and machine learning are being explored and can be enabled by Q-CTRL’s performance management infrastructure software, Fire Opal.

Q-CTRL produces infrastructure software for quantum computing and full-stack quantum-assured navigation systems including its own quantum sensing hardware. Q-CTRL does not sell sensor components, but the Ironstone Opal quantum-assured navigation system is now available for presale. Contact the Q-CTRL team for further details.

Q-CTRL is the first and only company in the world to deliver field validation of quantum sensing technology for navigation. This includes real field trials on airborne, ground-based, and maritime platforms. Contact the Q-CTRL team for further details.

Q-CTRL is currently engaging select partners for additional field trails and system-integration demonstrations. Please contact the Q-CTRL team for further details.

The quantum navigation systems built by Q-CTRL cannot be jammed or spoofed by an adversary. They function in any weather or visibility conditions and are completely passive, ensuring stealthy operations. Overall quantum navigation provides a robust backup when GPS is untrusted or unavailable, and is a complement to other navigation solutions.

Q-CTRL builds several complementary technologies based on trapped atoms. These atoms respond to external magnetic and gravitational fields as well as accelerations, and these tiny responses can be measured with laser beams. Because the response comes from the properties of the atoms, the hardware doesn't require any calibration and is very stable over long periods. With those measured signals, a navigation computer can either compare readings to a local map (map matching) or calculate position and velocity from measured accelerations (inertial navigation).

Quantum sensing leverages quantum mechanics to achieve unprecedented precision and sensitivity in measuring physical quantities like magnetic fields or acceleration. Unlike classical sensing techniques, quantum sensing exploits the unique properties of atoms to provide enhanced performance in a wide variety of sensing applications.

Quantum sensors are used for precise detection of geophysical and vehicle signals needed to navigate without any connection to GPS. Current and future applications include aerospace, maritime and autonomous vehicles such as uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) and autonomous underwater vehicles. Q-CTRL’s activities incorporate quantum inertial sensing, magnetometry, and gravimetry.

Our team has extensive experience incorporating quantum sensors into new and existing platforms. Get in touch to discuss how this capability fits into your development plans.

Quantum sensors operate differently from conventional sensors, making them:

  • More reliable
  • Less vulnerable to signal jamming
  • Less affected by electromagnetic interference

This gives quantum sensors an advantage over current sound and light based sensors, which are increasingly susceptible to interference issues.

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Quantum solutions for defense
Alice & BobAtom ComputingChalmers UniversityIBM QuantumImperial College LondonION QNorthwestern UniversityRigetti