The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is aware of the need for reliable navigation and the susceptibility of the Global Positioning System (GPS) to ineffectiveness due to jamming. As a result, the DoD’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) has contracted Leidos Inc. for an alternative navigation technology.
Leidos is working on measuring variations in the Earth’s magnetic field, harnessing the quantum properties of nitrogen in diamonds to provide navigational functionality. Unlike GPS, which employs signals emitted by satellites for positioning, magnetic navigation (MagNav) measures differences in the Earth’s magnetic fields and cannot be jammed. It does require the use of quantum physics and precise magnetic sensors (see image above).
Concerning the magnetic-field sensing technology, Aaron Canciani, manager of the Leidos Transition of Quantum Sensing (TQS) team (Reston, Va.) and a former Air Force scientist who is a pioneer of the technology, explained, “With magnetic navigation, there’s no signal to jam. The one thing MagNav does need a very sensitive magnetometer, which is where quantum comes in.”
Analyzing microscopic particles that can exist in multiple simultaneous states, quantum sensing can detect magnetic fields as required for navigation. Canciani volunteered that “quantum magnetometers have the potential to greatly increase position and attitude accuracies in magnetic navigation systems.”
He added, “Nitrogen vacancy-diamond magnetometers use the crystal structure of a diamond to define a sensing axis in which quantum measurements of the complete vector field can be known to [have] exquisite accuracies.”
The magnetic-field sensor for the MagNav system is being developed by Frequency Electronics, Inc. under subcontract to Leidos and in collaboration with MIT Lincoln Laboratory.
