A strontium atomic clock photographed in a laboratory at the University of Colorado Boulder in the United States.
Britain’s top-secret laboratory is developing the country’s first quantum clock to help strengthen British military intelligence and reconnaissance, the Ministry of Defense announced on Thursday.
The clock is highly accurate, with an error of less than a second over billions of years, “allowing scientists to measure time on an unprecedented scale,” the ministry said in a statement.
Defense Acquisition Minister Maria Eagle said, “This emerging breakthrough technology trial will not only strengthen our nation’s operational capabilities, but also accelerate industrial progress, strengthen our scientific sector, and provide advanced technology.” It has the potential to support jobs.”
The breakthrough technology from the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory will reduce reliance on GPS technology, which “can be disrupted and blocked by adversaries,” the ministry added.
This is not a world first, as the University of Colorado Boulder developed a quantum clock 15 years ago in collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
But the statement added that it was the “first device of its kind to be manufactured in the UK” and could be deployed into the military “within the next five years”.
Quantum clocks use quantum mechanics (the physics of matter and energy at the atomic and subatomic scale) to keep time with unprecedented precision by measuring energy fluctuations within atoms.
Accurate timekeeping is critical for applications such as satellite navigation systems, mobile phones, and digital TV, and could open up new frontiers in research fields such as quantum science.
Companies and governments around the world are eager to cash in on the huge potential profits that quantum technology can bring.
Last month, Google unveiled a new quantum computing chip that it says can perform tasks in minutes that would take a major supercomputer 10 trillion years to complete.
The United States and China are investing heavily in quantum research, and the U.S. government has imposed strict restrictions on the export of such sensitive technology.
One expert, Olivier Ezratti, told AFP in October that private and public investment in such technologies had reached $20 billion over the past five years.
The MoD said further research would “reduce the size of this technology to enable mass production and miniaturization, enabling a wide range of applications, including use in military vehicles and aircraft.”
© 2025 AFP
Citation: Secret lab developing UK’s first quantum clock (2 January 2025), 3 January 2025 https://phys.org/news/2025-01-secret-lab-uk-quantum – Retrieved from Clock.html
This document is subject to copyright. No part may be reproduced without written permission, except in fair dealing for personal study or research purposes. Content is provided for informational purposes only.
