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The Royal Navy has carried out the first trial of a quantum navigation system that could allow a vessel to know its precise position anywhere in the world without using GPS.
The technology, developed by physicists at Imperial College in London, exploits the quantum properties of atoms to measure an object’s movement more precisely than by conventional means.
A ship equipped with the technology could navigate more accurately than with chart and compass and without satellite-based navigation on which the world now relies.
“Sometimes that can be interfered with or sometimes it doesn’t work,” said Captain Tom Ryan, head of Navy X, the Royal Navy’s research division.
“So the ability to have a new and novel way of accurately, very accurately, plotting your position is fundamental to the way the Royal Navy and the military does business.”
The Royal Navy won’t be drawn on exactly how the technology might be used.
But the fact submarines can’t use GPS while submerged, and that the Navy doesn’t tend to comment on any technology used on submarines, might be a clue.
We’re standing on the bridge of the XV Patrick Blackett, the Navy’s new experimental vessel.
The ship is sleek, with tinted windows, a glossy black hull and a menacing-looking carbon fibre drone on its deck – it’s very James Bond.
However, the quantum accelerometer it’s testing couldn’t be less so.
Sat in a shipping container and held fast with cargo straps is a white box about the size of a fridge, connected to computers.
“This is a very exotic environment for one of these kinds of sensors,” said Dr Joe Cotter, from Imperial College, who helped develop it.
“One of the big challenges is making it work in the real world where things are moving, magnetic fields are changing.
“There are lots of vibrations that we need to manage to keep this thing stable…
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