The British army announced Thursday that it was developing an atomic clock using quantum technology so precise that it “will lose less than a second over billions of years”, which will be used in particular to improve the progress of its military operations.
This technology “could not only strengthen our operational capacity, but also promote progress in industry, support our scientific sector and highly skilled jobs,” argued Maria Eagle, Secretary of State for Defense Procurement, in a statement.
This type of clock already exists: the University of Boulder, in Colorado, has been developing for fifteen years, with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the most precise clocks in the world, using lasers to trap atoms and considerably improve the measurement of time. But “this is the first device of this type to be built in the United Kingdom,” said the British government on Thursday in its press release, assuring that it could be “deployed during military operations within five years “.
In general, the development of technologies that use the properties of quantum physics, which governs the world on an infinitely small scale, arouses the interest of countries and companies around the world. Google presented last month a new chip which, according to the group, represents a major breakthrough likely to bring practical quantum computing closer to reality.
The United States and China, in particular, are investing heavily in quantum research, and Washington has imposed restrictions on the export of this sensitive technology. Private and public investments in this area have reached around $20 billion worldwide over the past five years, Olivier Ezratty, an independent expert in quantum technologies, said in October.
Developed at the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory, an “ultra-secret” site according to the British government press release, the new quantum clock will make it possible in particular to improve the precision of navigation or guided missile systems or to secure communication technologies. encrypted communication.
London hopes that further research will enable its mass manufacturing and miniaturization, “thus paving the way for a wide range of applications, such as use on board military vehicles and aircraft”.
