Bipartisan Senate Duo Probing DOD Quantum Sensing Efforts amid Growing Global Interest

Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) have sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin seeking insight into the Pentagon's use of quantum sensing technology to maintain a strategic advantage over the nation's adversaries.

“Quantum sensing technology in particular can enable precise navigation that is resistant to signal jamming efforts by adversaries, providing a valuable alternative to GPS,” the lawmakers wrote, referencing a 2023 Center for Strategic and International Studies quantum technology report.

The letter came amid rising concerns over global interest and investment in quantum technologies -- especially in China. The lawmakers pointed to a September report’s findings that China’s capabilities in the area stand to soon match the United States, if it has not already

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The idea that quantum technologies -- including sensing -- could have critical impacts on the battlefield isn’t new to the Pentagon or lawmakers.

“It’s good to keep in mind that the DOD has been investing in quantum sensing for decades now,” Constanza Vidal Bustamante, an analyst at the Center for a New American Security, told Inside Defense.

It’s something the Pentagon clearly understands to be a critical emerging technology the U.S. “needs to stay at the forefront of, especially in light of increasing geopolitical competition with China,” she said. The letter may also serve as a less direct nudge from Hassan and Blackburn to their fellow lawmakers to treat quantum as a higher priority, Vidal Bustamante suggested.

Surrounding the letter is the context that other countries including not only U.S. adversaries like China, but also the U.S.’s allies “have recently published their own national strategies, including substantial amounts of funding to promote these technologies,” according to Vidal Bustamante.

The National Quantum Initiative Act -- passed in December 2018 -- authorized funding for several federal research and development activities in support of quantum information science and its technology applications, according to a September 2023 Congressional Research Service report. The funding ran out at the end of fiscal year 2023, given it was set to expire and the NQI Act had not been reauthorized.

It still hasn’t, despite lawmaker efforts.

The National Quantum Initiative Reauthorization Act -- H.R. 6213 -- unanimously passed in the House Science, Space and Technology Committee in November 2023. The committee presented an amended House report in late July and was subsequently placed on the chamber’s calendar for voting.

While the House version sits on the calendar, Senate lawmakers have not proposed a version of the bill in the higher chamber yet.

Despite support from lawmakers in both chambers and across the aisle -- along with proven use cases for quantum information science applications in the defense and commercial sectors -- the topic may not have reached the top of the priority list for House and Senate leadership, according to Vidal Bustamante.

“And so, this letter, I think, is kind of another way to probe a little bit and to incentivize increased action on quantum technology in this wider context,” Vidal Bustamante told Inside Defense.

Reauthorizing the bill though, is a key move for the federal government “to really demonstrate its commitment to these technologies,” she said.

One of the main obstacles that remain for investment in quantum sensing technologies is continuing to improve their size, weight power and cost (SWaP-C), according to Vidal Bustamante. “And those things are costly,” she added.

Maybe the level of funding is not the issue, rather the allocation, Vidal Bustamante suggested.

Perhaps we have the right amount of funding so far -- is it that it’s been kind of siloed or distributed a little bit too thinly across different U.S. government agencies within agencies like the DOD -- across all the various science and research agencies or research and engineering agencies and offices and labs within DOD. So, I think perhaps greater integration of those efforts could already move the needle,” she said.

Read the full article and more on Inside Defense.