The Air Force set sights on crafting a comprehensive strategy to drive its pursuits of quantum information science—and aims to partner with a proven player in the realm of quantum development that can provide connections and insight to help steer its creation.
“Formulating a strategy on how to develop, demonstrate, produce, harden and field quantum systems will truly be extremely difficult and require competencies that are not easily developed,” Air Force Research Laboratory officials wrote in request for information released Monday.
Quantum information science, or QIS, incorporates principles of quantum science—or the study of the tiniest particles of matter and energy—to process information in new ways and generate potentially revolutionary technologies and applications across sensing, communications, computing and beyond. The Defense Department and National Institute of Standards and Technology held their first workshops on the topic in the mid-1990s, but to date most government-led quantum initiatives and applications remain relatively nascent. Still, QIS has emerged as a weighty research and development priority for the U.S. government over the last half-decade, particularly boosted by the passage of the National Quantum Initiative Act in 2018 and quantum-accelerating funding and budget inclusions.
The Pentagon currently boasts a range of quantum efforts enveloping a strategic, but decidedly force craft quantum information science strategy wants
