Royal Navy Trials Quantum Clock

In the first-of-its-kind trials, the Royal Navy’s Disruptive Capabilities and Technologies Office worked with SAAB and quantum technology experts Aquark Technologies to further test the company’s AQlock.

The cold atom clock does not rely on traditional timing information provided by conventional global navigation satellite systems. Instead, atoms inside are slowed down at very low temperatures and detect any changes by comparing the frequency of the clock to those atoms, allowing for ultra-precise timing.

Already tested at sea for three days with HMS Pursuer last year, the latest trials saw the clock work with Saab’s Giraffe 1X radars at Saab and Qinetiq sites, with Royal Navy experimentation ship XV Patrick Blackett and DSTL acting as network rebroadcast nodes.

Aquark Technologies delivered two “quantum” atomic clocks to two locations; the clocks then provided the radar on Portsdown Hill with information normally gathered from traditional navigational systems.

In a step further, the trials then mimicked spoofing or jamming of navigation systems which can be vulnerable to outside tampering.

The Giraffe 1X radar operators, using a network spanning several pieces of software and hardware, were able to observe these manipulations of their system including deliberate misalignment of timestamps.

As well as the Royal Navy and Aquark, Saab, Qinetiq and Dstl were involved in the trials.