Wes, you have excelled yourself. You unpack a tough subject with ease, constantly throwing in quality zingers along the way -
"GPS spoofers become about as useful as an AOL CD in 2025."
Is just one. Glass gun... the Oklahoma storm... others. Just a great light touch.
Much bigger than that is the tech. I felt like I was reading a contemporary account of the first flight at Kitty hawk. I agree with you that this tech is the next big thing on a par with radar and gps. It's going to completely change the game. Especially in Indopacom where a ISR Nav Coms denied/perverted environment is the biggest problem (and now opportunity) for US forces.
Equally important, being able to erase space dependence as a single point of failure is beyond game changing.
This is an important price and very well delivered. Great job.
I recall when GPS was first made available to researchers outside the Defense space. My brother had a device that was similar to Maxwell Smart's shoe phone: big and clunky.
It took half a decade before commercial applications started showing up as car map devices. It was another decade before they hit smartphones and started becoming ubiquitous.
I suspect the path for miniaturizing quantum computing will take at least two generations. And as a rear guard centralized universal battlefield control module (think multistory complex), maybe, just maybe by the end of this decade. But I strongly doubt it. More like mid-2030s.
But it's how scientific discovery works. The challenge is working the physics to make the very first prototype and then beg, steal, and borrow to get to a minimally viable product. What you've described sounds gen 4 already.
It's massively exciting as a scientific feat. It's just going to take a while for it to actually provide economically viable usefulness.
I spent a short time on that lovely island on my way to Vietnam. I'm delighted I wasn't there alongside your Grandad - it wasn't nearly as pleasant back then.
From a purely technological point of view, this essay is spot on. Quite fair to say that this could be, "The most important invention since radar."
Trouble is...
What works for ships and large planes may soon enough work for large missiles, but it will be interesting to see whether the it could be further miniaturized in time to fit on a weaponized, consumer-level drone while Ukraine still exists to benefit from it. And, if it did, describe a world in which ubiquitous inertial gravity sensors are as available to both sides as small, cheap drones are now. It's 1945 all over again, and everyone knows that the Russians will never figure out how to make an atomic bomb.
And...
The allies may not be impressed by an American military that can target anything, anywhere, anytime, if t can not depend upon the United States to be a reliable ally. Does anyone care if Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth have this technology?
I don’t know the gravity sensor science. But I know the topological maps and satellite data did not use gravity sensors. And the article emphasized the high sensitivity and noise canceling required.
So I think other modalities don’t transfer to gravity sensing. Thus surveying might be necessary.
There is detailed topographic and bathymetric (underwater topographic) data spanning the globe, produced by satellites. I don’t think there should be any need to survey anything.
Intercontinental ballistic missiles had three spinning gyroscopes in them, IIRC. I saw a ship based version on a 900’ tanker and that thing wizzed loudly enough for the motor to be heard across the room.
Since the 1970s, gyroscopes have gotten a lot smaller & cheaper. Pretty much everyone has a MEMs version in their back pocket now, sensitive enough (with filtering, etc) to act as a seismograph.
I expect to see anti-spoofing to be built into more and more military gear, ie similar to your iPhone realizing that it can’t be driving in the ocean and placing you on a road next to it instead.
So the CEP may increase as denial becomes more widespread but inertial corrections should cut down on the opportunities to spoof significantly.
Similar approaches were used in the 1970s for improving the accuracy of the inertial systems built into planes and cruise missiles.
A topo map of the way to the objective would capture the various valleys, flats, whatever that the ground radar should see and the missile / plane would correct its location fix accordingly.
Some pretty wild stuff given the primitive computers in missiles and planes back then.
The release uses the phrase "software ruggedized hardware" to describe this sensor. I'm not sure they even fully grasp how that phrase embodies the essence of quantum biology. I know for certain this technology is a massive breakthrough for that reason. A massive dominant quantum computer will come. But real physical/biological quantum interfaces mix digital and analog with error correction essential to the process. WOW!
Perhaps I misunderstood the technology, but I thought it was a magnetic field analysis, *not* gravitational? Still helps with GPS, but is much easier to block / fool / jam than gravity.
Also worth noting that the Earth's magnetic field changes fairly regularly so it would require regular updates to remain accurate (unlike the gravitational field, which is pretty steady).
They measure variations in the magnetic field of an atomic laser beam sent through a splitter in order to determine the gravity at a specific location.
Loved “You can’t spoof gravity,”
#GlassCannon 🤣
Wes, you have excelled yourself. You unpack a tough subject with ease, constantly throwing in quality zingers along the way -
"GPS spoofers become about as useful as an AOL CD in 2025."
Is just one. Glass gun... the Oklahoma storm... others. Just a great light touch.
Much bigger than that is the tech. I felt like I was reading a contemporary account of the first flight at Kitty hawk. I agree with you that this tech is the next big thing on a par with radar and gps. It's going to completely change the game. Especially in Indopacom where a ISR Nav Coms denied/perverted environment is the biggest problem (and now opportunity) for US forces.
Equally important, being able to erase space dependence as a single point of failure is beyond game changing.
This is an important price and very well delivered. Great job.
Thanks for the kind words. Usually when I’m well-rested and over-caffeinated is when I write my best stuff, like today. 😂
I recall when GPS was first made available to researchers outside the Defense space. My brother had a device that was similar to Maxwell Smart's shoe phone: big and clunky.
It took half a decade before commercial applications started showing up as car map devices. It was another decade before they hit smartphones and started becoming ubiquitous.
I suspect the path for miniaturizing quantum computing will take at least two generations. And as a rear guard centralized universal battlefield control module (think multistory complex), maybe, just maybe by the end of this decade. But I strongly doubt it. More like mid-2030s.
But it's how scientific discovery works. The challenge is working the physics to make the very first prototype and then beg, steal, and borrow to get to a minimally viable product. What you've described sounds gen 4 already.
It's massively exciting as a scientific feat. It's just going to take a while for it to actually provide economically viable usefulness.
"...a machine smarter than most Marines. ZING!"
So, a DOS 16 computer from 1984?
THIS Marine is slightly affronted - I always consider the source.
My grandfather was a USMC fighter pilot. He shot down 5 Japanese Zeros over Okinawa in '45. Tons of respect for my crayon eaters out there.
I spent a short time on that lovely island on my way to Vietnam. I'm delighted I wasn't there alongside your Grandad - it wasn't nearly as pleasant back then.
From a purely technological point of view, this essay is spot on. Quite fair to say that this could be, "The most important invention since radar."
Trouble is...
What works for ships and large planes may soon enough work for large missiles, but it will be interesting to see whether the it could be further miniaturized in time to fit on a weaponized, consumer-level drone while Ukraine still exists to benefit from it. And, if it did, describe a world in which ubiquitous inertial gravity sensors are as available to both sides as small, cheap drones are now. It's 1945 all over again, and everyone knows that the Russians will never figure out how to make an atomic bomb.
And...
The allies may not be impressed by an American military that can target anything, anywhere, anytime, if t can not depend upon the United States to be a reliable ally. Does anyone care if Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth have this technology?
Sounds great, but can it be miniaturized and how expensive is it? Naturally these questions will only be answered in the breach as they say.
Don’t you need a gravity map first? So the military has to send ships to “survey” potential battle navigation sites. I assume China will block this.
Maybe.
I don’t know the gravity sensor science. But I know the topological maps and satellite data did not use gravity sensors. And the article emphasized the high sensitivity and noise canceling required.
So I think other modalities don’t transfer to gravity sensing. Thus surveying might be necessary.
There is detailed topographic and bathymetric (underwater topographic) data spanning the globe, produced by satellites. I don’t think there should be any need to survey anything.
Submarines need accurate bathymetric data to safely navigate. It’s also useful for helping ships avoid dangers to navigation.
It might also be incorporated into weather models.
Intercontinental ballistic missiles had three spinning gyroscopes in them, IIRC. I saw a ship based version on a 900’ tanker and that thing wizzed loudly enough for the motor to be heard across the room.
Since the 1970s, gyroscopes have gotten a lot smaller & cheaper. Pretty much everyone has a MEMs version in their back pocket now, sensitive enough (with filtering, etc) to act as a seismograph.
I expect to see anti-spoofing to be built into more and more military gear, ie similar to your iPhone realizing that it can’t be driving in the ocean and placing you on a road next to it instead.
So the CEP may increase as denial becomes more widespread but inertial corrections should cut down on the opportunities to spoof significantly.
Similar approaches were used in the 1970s for improving the accuracy of the inertial systems built into planes and cruise missiles.
A topo map of the way to the objective would capture the various valleys, flats, whatever that the ground radar should see and the missile / plane would correct its location fix accordingly.
Some pretty wild stuff given the primitive computers in missiles and planes back then.
The release uses the phrase "software ruggedized hardware" to describe this sensor. I'm not sure they even fully grasp how that phrase embodies the essence of quantum biology. I know for certain this technology is a massive breakthrough for that reason. A massive dominant quantum computer will come. But real physical/biological quantum interfaces mix digital and analog with error correction essential to the process. WOW!
Sounds a lot like Lockheed Martin's Dark Ice quantum magnetometer.
Dark Ice: https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/news/features/2019-features/tech-thats-cool-as-dark-ice.html
Also see: https://www.wired.com/story/quantum-physicists-found-a-new-safer-way-to-navigate/
Perhaps I misunderstood the technology, but I thought it was a magnetic field analysis, *not* gravitational? Still helps with GPS, but is much easier to block / fool / jam than gravity.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.08167
Also worth noting that the Earth's magnetic field changes fairly regularly so it would require regular updates to remain accurate (unlike the gravitational field, which is pretty steady).
They measure variations in the magnetic field of an atomic laser beam sent through a splitter in order to determine the gravity at a specific location.
Thank you!