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THE PENTAGON IS PREPARING FOR A WORLD WITHOUT GPS.

william

william

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In June, the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit launched Project Farseer worth $200 million. It's one goal is to move quantum sensors out of labs and into the hands of warfighters, fast. Prototypes must be testable at a government facility within 3 to 9 months of award. Not a research program but a fielding pipeline.
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What Farseer is buying:
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Quantum clocks. Portable atomic clocks so precise a vehicle tracks its own position by timing alone. No satellite required.
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Quantum gravimeters. Every place on earth has a unique gravitational fingerprint. Read it, match it to a map, know where you are.
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Farseer's spec: sensors under 20 kilograms, accurate enough to find things underground.
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Quantum magnetometers. Navigate by the earth's magnetic field. Detect submarines and buried structures by the field they disturb.
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Rydberg atom sensors, named in the solicitation. Radios that use atoms instead of antennas, hearing the entire spectrum at once, through jamming. That's exactly what Infleqtion is already delivering to the Army.
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Farseer runs under a presidential executive order on quantum signed this year, alongside the White House naming atomic clocks and navigation as critical national security technology, and NASA launching the first space based quantum gravity sensor in 2030. Everyone argues about quantum computers, machines that might matter in 2030. Quantum sensing works today, and it's what the military is buying now, because losing GPS in a war stopped being hypothetical. China knows it too, they have the same programs building its quantum network are building its quantum navigation.
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https://twitter.com/x/status/2094779932714930557
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I have flown MUCH further with out a GPS. Until 1991 we did it all the time. Commercial roll out was delayed about 10 years due to cost, SA and incomplete satellite networks.

Land based navigation is far cheaper and far far more resilient. Differentially corrected LORAN with modern computers is nearly as accurate as GPS, quite a bit more secure and far less of an issue to replace the event of a strike. Im not advocating digging up analog systems, I merely pointing out successful alternative existed even in 2000.

The quantum clocks with a robust database will be usable and deployable. The cost per unit, per unit (sub, plane, ship, boat, tank) is afaik unbelievably expensive and probably will be for some time.

As for the rest I am aware of them (meaning I have read about them) but have no first hand knowledge to add.
But Quantum gravimeters sounds super cool.
 
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GPS is a fairly recent innovation. People used to navigate without it all the time. Driving, we just used paper maps. On ships and planes, I think people used maps, compasses and checked the skies? I'm not exactly sure, but I know people trained on how to do it and managed quite well.
 
Librarylady said:
GPS is a fairly recent innovation. People used to navigate without it all the time. Driving, we just used paper maps. On ships and planes, I think people used maps, compasses and checked the skies? I'm not exactly sure, but I know people trained on how to do it and managed quite well.
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You know the navy used sextants long before a gps, now that may be an old skill but today’s generation seems to like making old the new again. Problem is a sextant is not as fast as a computer but you can’t hack it either.
 
One of the first thing I had to master in Flight School was a slide ruler type of computer. We used it to compute ground speed and wind drift (as well any normal maths).
Librarylady said:
GPS is a fairly recent innovation. People used to navigate without it all the time. Driving, we just used paper maps. On ships and planes, I think people used maps, compasses and checked the skies? I'm not exactly sure, but I know people trained on how to do it and managed quite well.
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We used maps compass's, a time piece, and a paper map. With it you could and did fly across continents and oceans. Civilians used radio beacons and navigational aids (multiple radio guidance systems). The military did too but you had to demonstrate operating without it.

We used the moon and stars for a rough fix sometimes. Now all that said, there was never a time we didnt have some sort of area navigation available (usually Loran)

LORAN, for the end user, worked like GPS or Omega. You enter were you want to go by reading a map or book and it took you there. It was always within at least 3 miles and sometimes you could get within 1/2 mile (2640 ft) hot dang ! We are close now😎
 
Dr Arthur said:
Sextant and a clock was all they needed. The journey of Captain Cook added to the progression of clock technology. On his trip to Tahiti and then Australia they used two clocks as a test to find the best.
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The absolute undisputed navigational Champion of all human history is….<the envelope please>….the accurate portable timepiece. Over water with a sun height measurement at exactly 1200 local and the time difference of your portable timepiece (a clock) you can determine your location with unerring accuracy.

Over land it is easier: a clock, an accurate topo map and a pressure altimeter are all you need..

Of course you need to see the sun so wx days suck and you need a sextant at night. (Sextants can work during the day too)
 
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