The Quantum Opportunity Beyond Computing

Quantum sensing may not grab a lot of headlines, but it’s gaining momentum as one of the most practical applications of quantum technology.

Across aerospace, defense and other demanding environments, engineers are exploring how quantum sensors can improve navigation, timing and measurement in challenging environments. With federal timelines now pointing to quantum capabilities by 2028, the near-term opportunity is clearer: move promising technology from the lab to platforms where precision, resilience and reliability matter most.

Quantum sensing uses the behavior of matter at the smallest scales to detect signals, measure changes and reveal what traditional technologies may miss. It measures motion, gravity, electromagnetic fields and time with a level of precision conventional sensors cannot match. In environments where accuracy matters and traditional systems can be impeded, that capability could open important new possibilities.

Lockheed Martin has been applying quantum science to these kinds of challenges since 2008. In 2021, quantum became one of the company’s designated priority technology areas, alongside Directed Energy, hypersonics and autonomy.
 

Quantum science focuses on those individual pixels. At the smallest scales, atoms and particles can exist in more than one state, behave as both particles and waves, and respond to extraordinarily small changes in their environment. Quantum technology turns those properties into practical tools. In quantum sensing, that means building devices that can detect extremely small changes with remarkable sensitivity and stability.

Quantum computing is one part of the quantum technology landscape, and if it matures as many hope, it could help solve problems beyond the reach of today’s classical computers, like simulating molecular interactions to accelerate drug discovery, modeling new materials at the atomic level or solving optimization problems that are simply beyond the reach of classical machines.

But large-scale quantum computing still faces significant challenges:

Quantum sensing is different. In addition to measuring the physical world with greater precision or higher stability than conventional systems can achieve, quantum sensors are projected to unlock new ways to balance performance with size, weight, and power (SWaP). Across the quantum community, it is also widely seen as one of the areas likely to deliver practical capability sooner.

What unites them is sensitivity and stability. Quantum systems respond to very small changes in the environment, and in cases like inertial sensing, have a longer runway for the high-stability measurements that are key to high-precision missions.

“It takes a lot of clever engineering to package the complicated quantum system into a device that can be used in the real world, outside of a lab,” said Leifer. “But once you do, you have a device that may be more precise, uses less power or works in ways conventional sensors cannot.”

That challenge, taking something highly sensitive and making it reliable in demanding conditions, is where Lockheed Martin sees its role.
 

Lockheed Martin’s approach is centered on partnership and engineering: working with specialized quantum companies to move promising technologies out of controlled lab environments and onto real-world platforms.

That approach builds on capabilities Lockheed Martin has developed over decades. The company has deep experience designing precision laser and optical systems and making them work in the field. The engineering required to make those systems perform under vibration, motion, changing temperatures and other environmental stresses is closely related to what quantum sensing technologies need.

Engineering teams who already know how to make complex optical systems work in the field can easily make the transition to quantum sensors:

“In our work with our partner companies, we’re the engineers in the room,” Couger said. “We know how to take something fragile, integrate it with complex systems and make it thrive in real environments.”

One example is Lockheed Martin’s role as prime contractor on the Defense Innovation Unit Transition of Quantum Sensors, which is developing a quantum inertial navigation system. Working with partners including Q-CTRL and AOSense, the team is combining quantum hardware expertise with Lockheed Martin’s experience integrating sensitive technologies into defense platforms. The goal is a system that uses individual atoms to detect motion and orientation, providing a GPS-augmenting solution for any environment.
 

The next few years will be an important period for quantum sensing. Lockheed Martin is preparing for multiple sensing demonstrations on platforms this year and beyond, with each focused on validating performance in real-world conditions.

"These aren’t science experiments for their own sake,” Couger said. “They are designed to answer practical questions. Does it work? Does it last? Does it matter?”

The answers to those questions will help determine what becomes possible for customers operating in some of the most demanding environments. In places where GPS is interfered with, networks are degraded or conventional sensing reaches its limits, more precise ways of measuring motion, timing and the physical world could make a meaningful difference.

And for Lockheed Martin, that means applying the engineering needed to help advanced technologies perform where they matter most.