Australia and the UK are working closer than ever before on defence science with the aim of placing prototype technologies in the hands of warfighters as early as possible.
Among the emerging technologies is quantum position, navigation and timing (PNT), trialled aboard New Zealand frigate HMNZS Aotearoa during the most recent RIMPAC exercise off Hawaii.
Australia’s chief defence scientist Professor Tanya Monro said quantum computing presented some of the “biggest hairiest” of problems.
“We need to be able to find new ways to accelerate the use of technology, and it means doing things differently. It means getting emerging technology into the hands of the war fighter,” she told journalists in Canberra.
Quantum PNT would not supplant existing navigation technologies such as GPS but it would come into its own in a conflict if GPS was degraded or totally denied.
Visiting Chief scientific adviser to the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) Professor Dame Angela McLean said the relationship with Australia was close and getting closer, largely through like-mindedness and a sense of necessity.
“There are two kinds of collaboration. So there’s areas where we’re both really strong as countries. And then there are others where one of us has a facility that the other needs access,” she said.
“There are two ways to come together as collaborators. Basically paired excellence, or filling in gaps with each other, complementarity.”
Professor Monro said one collaboration launched in 2020 created a group of quantum science doctoral students in the UK and Australia.
“Essentially by establishing this joint cohort, what we’re trying to do is fast track the training of highly skilled quantum experts for both of our defence research ecosystems,” she said.
“The first wave of those students from both countries is nearing completion, which is very exciting.
“We now have a pretty good sense of which country has got the lead on what. And we’re now starting to work out how to integrate them.”
Professor Monro said Australia was developing a national quantum strategy and needed to learn from the UK and their experiences.
She said there were discrete areas in Australian research where we had an edge and complement what UK colleagues could do. One such areas is quantum clocks and timing devices.
“Defence has been supporting seed funding into a number of the quantum computing centres of excellence,” she said.
“Our role in this space is about setting the right problems for the industry ecosystem and the SMEs to target. And in quantum computing I see some of the biggest, hairiest problems that we’re likely to be the lead sponsors for.
“Things like real-time analysis of satellite imagery, this is a really good foundational form of quantum computing, or quantum assisted computing.”