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Why does the world need Quantum technology?

In our ever changing world, the limits of existing technologies are becoming increasingly apparent. Many pressing global challenges, such as secure navigation, imaging for healthcare and novel drug discovery, require ever increasing sensor precision or computational power. If these demands cannot be met with existing technologies, it is important to investigate and accelerate the most promising of the next generation technologies to market.  

Governments worldwide have invested over $33Bn into quantum research and development. The commercial sector is also investing billions of pounds, with many well-funded Venture Capital backed spin out companies and start-ups emerging in this field. It is therefore clear that Quantum Technologies (QT) will be transitioning from the laboratory to the real world over the next 10 years or so. Whilst there are doubts in some quarters about the ability of QT to generate meaningful financial returns in the medium term, it is still seen as a “big bet” by many governments, financiers and industry, given its potential impact on information security and the global economy. The search is now on to find practical applications for QT to generate a tangible return on these very significant investments. As many of these technologies are dual use, they have the potential to bring exciting new capabilities into defence, security and critical national infrastructure.

What are Quantum Technologies?

Quantum technologies (QT) use the properties of quantum mechanics, the physics of sub-atomic particles, to create new devices with exceptional performance and the ability overcome the fundamental limitations faced by classical technologies. 

Quantum covers a very broad range of technologies but can be divided roughly into two categories:

  • Quantum Computing – Although speculative, if a suitably large, reliable, fully error-corrected quantum computer could be built, it would allow us to do things we simply cannot do with classical computers, including better simulation of chemistry and materials, and perhaps even optimisation of complex problems in logistics, although the science of the latter is still unproven. 
  • Quantum Enhanced Technologies - Sensing, timing and communications are all things we can do right now with classical technologies, but quantum enhancement could potentially provide greater sensitivity, accuracy and range to these systems. 

QinetiQ believes it is highly unlikely there will be a purely “quantum” system. Instead, we predict a future in which there will be range of hybrid quantum-classical systems, as even quantum computers will need to be accessed by classical computers. However, the integration of these two very different technologies presents an extreme systems engineering challenge, for which the majority of industry is not yet mobilised or adequately resourced to tackle.

 
QinetiQ - Your Quantum Partner

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Looking for more information? Click here to contact our Quantum team.
Quantum product brochure

QinetiQ’s Quantum Capabilities

QinetiQ is taking a pragmatic and long-term view of QT, investing ahead of demand to generate and attract the right quantum scientific expertise to support the needs of our defence, security and critical national infrastructure clients. However, QinetiQ’s strength lies in our ability to bring quantum physicists together with mathematicians and systems engineers to develop and deliver practical hybrid solutions for our clients.  

We offer five core services in Quantum:  

  • Test & Evaluation of Quantum Enhanced Systems
  • Quantum Systems Integration and Engineering
  • Applied Research and Development
  • Technology Watch
  • Market Integration Services

These five cover the entire range of quantum technologies, including sensing, computing and communications. We also have deep expertise in advanced materials.

Test & Evaluation of Quantum Enhanced Systems: As QT mature, it is critical that the resulting hybrid systems undergo rigorous Test & Evaluation (T&E) to prove that they will work in real world operational conditions, and that they will deliver a quantifiable return on investment for our clients. Already a leading global provider of T&E services, QinetiQ validates and verify system performance delivering testing and trials at scale in the maritime, land, and air domains. We do this using a range of T&E assets, in our laboratories, in a wide range of controlled environments we either own ourselves or operate on behalf of our clients, as well as staging field trials of increasing complexity. We are already running a number of projects evaluating third party quantum devices, which have either been developed either commercially or in academia, a recent example was a commercial flight trial of a Q-INS system in QinetiQ’s Air Test Bed. We are also investing to develop a market leading test harness which allows us to “truth” the performance of quantum products.  

Quantum Systems Integration and Engineering: Systems engineering is a discipline focussed on the design, integration and management of complex systems over their lifecycles. The integration of quantum technologies into larger ruggedised systems will pose unique challenges and risks due to the very sensitive nature of many QT. QinetiQ is pioneering an emerging new discipline Quantum Systems Engineering, collaborating with others to generate thought leadership articles to inform the debate, ensuring that industry recognises and responds to the challenges of engineering with QT. We seek to lead by example, generating capacity and new skills so that quantum enablement and enhancement becomes a reality. We are also focussed on building practical solutions to real world problems. We have invested to develop market leading data fusion techniques so we can integrate the outputs from quantum sensors such as, accelerometers, gyroscopes, gradiometers and magnetometers with classical PNT sensors. 

Applied Research and Development:  We take the fundamental research published by academia and then use our deep knowledge of defence, security and critical national infrastructure problem sets to design and run our own experiments. These allow us to give truly impartial, technology independent and evidence based advice on the suitability of QT to deliver operational advantage. For example, QinetiQ has Beta tested NISQ computers for manufacturers, evaluated quantum algorithms for specific defence and security use cases, and is now researching the application of LSFTQC to chemistry problems. In quantum communications we have run a range of laboratory tests and facilitated field trials on quantum secured communications using our proprietary Software Defined Laser technologies. In Advanced Materials, our team researches the synthesis of 0D, 1D and 2D materials (including quantum dots, mxenes, TMD’s, hBN, graphenes) using techniques such as vapour deposition, exfoliation and proprietary methods to enable manufacture and patterning.

Technology Watch: Our technology watch and consultancy services provide up to date vendor neutral information on the current state of the art in QT. We examine emerging technologies and how they might disrupt defence, security and critical infrastructure in the future. We identify the risks and opportunities associated with new innovations to provide an insight to decision-makers on how their adoption could overcome challenges and achieve operational advantage. From horizon scanning to informing specific QT product choices, we give our clients the insight and evidence they need to inform their plans.

Market Integration Services: QinetiQ has long experience in creating and managing extensive partner ecosystems across industry and academia to generate new solutions to our client’s mission critical problems, typically in 6 – 8 weeks. QinetiQ’s repeatable model includes commercial and security enablement that allow agile procurement and delivery of client tasks, using ‘rainbow teams’ drawn from across multiple organisations and award-winning collaborative working arrangements beyond ISO 44001 standard.


Quantum technologies have the potential to reshape our world. At QinetiQ, our focus is on turning quantum technologies into quantum capabilities, across sensing, position navigation and timing, computing and communications. From quantum classical data fusion to system test and evaluation in our laboratories, controlled environments and in field trials, we take a systems engineering approach to quantum; partnering with leading academics and industry experts to develop practical hybrid solutions to real word problems to meet the defence, security and national infrastructure challenges of today and tomorrow. 

Contact quantum@qinetiq.com to find out more.