The Air Force Research Lab’s award to the NYC-based startup is also a vote of confidence in the idea of using quantum particles for secure communications — an idea of which the NSA has long been skeptical.
Boeing's approach goes beyond Chinese experiments with space-based Quantum Key Distribution and could enable ultra-precise timing and sensing, said chief engineer Jay Lowell.
Government can’t stop to update systems, so modernization has to happen without interruptions.
“This is the starting gun for what may be the single largest overhaul of US government communication systems since the adoption of the Internet, as ordered by the President in National Security Memorandum 10,” said RAND scientist Edward Parker. “It will probably go on for decades and will cost billions of dollars.”
The US and China are racing to develop quantum technologies. But each superpower is emphasizing different applications of the same fundamental science, and some American experts think a couple of Beijing’s top priorities may be dead ends.
Tech giants and venture capitalists are pouring billions into developing quantum computers. But related tech of special interest to the military — quantum sensing, navigation and communications — needs stepped-up federal funding, the Air Force Association says.
“In the military, where you’re sending extremely sensitive classified data from one office to the next, you want to make sure that no one’s going to be able to break into and decrypt that,” Arthur Herman, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, said. “Well, [quantum key distribution] is definitely a way in which to carry that out.”
As threats rapidly evolve, digital engineering, manufacturing capacity and robust supply chains are critical to meeting challenges.
"[I]t's really a good time, and important, for the government to step in and help prime the pump," says Celia Merzbacher, deputy director of NIST's Quantum Economic Development Consortium.
The Air Force is creating a new PEO for "Fighters and Advanced Aircraft" this summer, combining NGAD with the Digital Century Series program, says acquisition czar Will Roper.