New $2.7 million project funded by Department of National Defence will develop technology for quantum radar.
Stealth aircraft in the Canadian arctic will be no match for a new quantum radar system.
Researchers at the University of Waterloo are developing a new technology that promises to help radar operators cut through heavy background noise and isolate objects —including stealth aircraft and missiles— with unparalleled accuracy.
“In the Arctic, space weather such as geomagnetic storms and solar flares interfere with radar operation and make the effective identification of objects more challenging,” said Jonathan Baugh, a faculty member at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) and a professor in the Department of Chemistry who is leading the project with three other researchers at IQC and the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology. “By moving from traditional radar to quantum radar, we hope to not only cut through this noise, but also to identify objects that have been specifically designed to avoid detection.
Stealth aircraft rely on special paint and body design to absorb and deflect radio waves—making them invisible to traditional radar. They also use electronic jamming to swamp detectors with artificial noise. With quantum radar, in theory, these planes will not only be exposed, but also unaware they have been detected.
Technology to improve national defence
Quantum radar uses a sensing technique called quantum illumination to detect and receive information about an object. At its core, it leverages the quantum principle of entanglement, where two photons form a connected, or entangled, pair.
The method works by sending one of the photons to a distant object, while retaining the other member of the pair. Photons in the return signal are checked for telltale signatures of entanglement, allowing photons from the noisy environmental background to be discarded. This can greatly improve the radar signal-to-noise in certain situations.
But in order for quantum radar to work in the field, researchers first need to realize a fast, on-demand source of entangled photons.
“The goal for our project is to create a robust source of entangled photons that can be generated at the press of a button,” said Baugh.
To date, quantum illumination has only been explored in the laboratory. The Government of Canada, under the Department of National Defence’s All Domain Situational Awareness (ADSA) Science & Technology program, is investing $2.7M to expedite its use in the field.
The 54 North Warning System (NWS) radar stations, based in the Arctic and operated by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), are nearing the end of their life spans and could need to be replaced as early as 2025.
“This project will allow us to develop the technology to help move quantum radar from the lab to the field,” said Baugh. “It could change the way we think about national security.”
Learn more: Quantum radar will expose stealth aircraft
The Latest on: Quantum radar
[google_news title=”” keyword=”quantum radar” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Quantum radar
- Defence Policy Update Focuses On Quantum Technology's Role In Making Canada Safeon April 30, 2024 at 11:59 am
The recent release of the Department of National Defence's policy update, Our North, Strong and Free , outlines the progress being made by the feder ...
- Port Blair airport gets night landing, take-off facilities as Airfield Lighting System installedon April 30, 2024 at 6:07 am
The commissioning of Tactical Air Navigation System (TACAN) and Precision Approach Radar (PAR) indicated a “quantum jump in terms of safety and operations” of military flights at the Utkrosh Airfield, ...
- Port Blair airport gets night landing, take-off facilitieson April 29, 2024 at 11:58 pm
The commissioning of Tactical Air Navigation System (TACAN) and Precision Approach Radar (PAR) heralded a “quantum jump in terms of safety and operations” of military flights at the Utkrosh Airfield, ...
- Funding Radar: This week’s six most interesting calls for proposals in healthon April 29, 2024 at 11:33 pm
The EU health sector is undergoing significant change, with the European Parliament and the Council of the EU recently reach ...
- Federal and Queensland governments bet big on US-based PsiQuantum in $940 million deal to bring quantum computing homeon April 29, 2024 at 9:16 pm
PsiQuantum was founded in Palo Alto, California, in 2015 by expat Australian professors to build the “world’s first useful quantum computer”.
- Google Chrome's new post-quantum cryptography is causing some issueson April 29, 2024 at 3:00 am
Some Google Chrome users are reporting problems connecting to websites, servers and firewalls following the release of Chrome 124 earlier this month, according to Bleeping Computer. Released in April ...
- Quantum reinforcement learningon April 24, 2024 at 12:05 am
However, it usually takes time to find rewarded actions and thus to learn. Quantum algorithms can speed up this search for rewarded actions. We demonstrated in a proof-of-principle experiment such ...
- Quantum radar and the generation of quantum microwaveson April 24, 2024 at 12:05 am
We are exploring in collaboration with the DLR Institute of High Frequency Technology and Radar Systems the feasibility of using these concepts in a quantum radar. In such a system, one of the ...
- Super Radar: Pioneering Research Overcomes Historic Trade-Offs Between Distance and Detailon April 22, 2024 at 9:30 pm
Breakthrough radar technology improves distance resolution, impacting multiple industries and enabling advanced applications like detailed surface characterization. New interference radar functions em ...
via Bing News