Satellite navigation systems are vulnerable to disruption from solar storms or deliberate jamming, and quantum sensors could replace them—but current quantum devices are too large, expensive, and fragile to put on a moving vehicle. MISTIQUE aims to shrink quantum sensors and make them robust enough for real-world use on ships, aircraft, and other platforms. The core problem is that today’s quantum timing and navigation systems work well in a lab but fail when jostled, heated, or moved. The project will tackle the physics and engineering challenges needed to build compact, cost-effective quantum devices that can operate reliably outside controlled conditions. If successful, the research could provide backup navigation and timing for critical infrastructure—power grids, communication networks, transport systems, water management, and border control—when satellite signals are unavailable or untrustworthy. The work will also feed into a larger UK programme spanning civil and defence applications, and transfer manufacturing knowledge into the national supply chain. The project does not promise a consumer product; it lays the groundwork for resilient, quantum-based navigation that could eventually protect systems most people never think about.
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MISTIQUE will accelerate the practical benefits of quantum sensors for society. It will derive its research program from the innovation needs of future transport systems and lay the physics and engineering foundations for practical deployment in the real world. MISTIQUE will address the need for solutions providing accurate navigation and timing without the use of satellite navigation services, or when these are unusable for periods of time. While satellite navigation services are immensely successful and readily available to everyone in their smartphones and cars, they have one significant drawback in their vulnerability to disruption. Such disruption by natural solar activity, or manmade jamming and spoofing devices has become a threat to our critical national infrastructure and our ability to navigate. Quantum sensors can in principle provide an extremely resilient solution to this challenge, however they still are too bulky, costly and sensitive to be routinely operated on a moving platform. MISTIQUE will build upon the successes of the UK National Quantum Technology Hub in Sensors and Timing and hone in on the critical research challenges, which will allow the deployment of quantum sensors on moving platforms, ranging from marine vessels to aeroplanes in the first instance. This will provide the seed-corn to a larger research programme across civil and defence applications. It will provide the UK with small, cost-effective, robust and resilient solutions to critical national infrastructure, such as communication, energy and transport networks, land and water management as well as border control and instil the respective knowledge into the national supply chain.
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