Quantum tech for military antennas to be bolstered by BAE Systems
NewsNovember 17, 2021
MERRIMACK, N.H. BAE Systems has won multiple development contracts from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to advance quantum technology and radio frequency (RF) sensing by updating legacy antenna designs for the military.
According to the company, leveraging quantum sensing offers the possibility of reducing size and increasing sensitivity and accessible bandwidth by several orders of magnitude. This would essentially allow the company to circumvent traditional design constraints.
Officials claim that a quantum approach to aperture development decouples the size of the antenna from the wavelength of the incoming signal. This can reduce the size and number of antennas on Department of Defense platforms.
Awarded earlier this year, the three quantum aperture-related contracts, which total $6.5 million, include work as a prime contractor on Quantum Apertures Technical Area 2 and teaming with ColdQuanta in both Technical Area 1 of Quantum Apertures and the Science of Atomic Vapors for New Technologies (SAVaNT) program.
