GPS technology has become a key part of daily life and modern infrastructure, supporting everything from smartphones to airplanes and power grids. However, the system faces increasing threats from GPS jamming and spoofing, which have disrupted over 1,000 commercial flights per day in 2024, particularly in regions such as the Middle East and Eastern Europe. These disruptions can mislead pilots about their aircraft's position or altitude and have caused ships to veer off course.
The rise in electronic warfare tactics has highlighted vulnerabilities in GPS-dependent systems. In response, researchers and companies are turning to quantum technologies as a possible solution. Quantum navigation methods do not rely on satellite signals and are being tested by several organizations.
Boeing, Infleqtion, and SandboxAQ—corporate partners of the Chicago Quantum Exchange (CQE), based at the University of Chicago—are among those developing these new applications. The CQE connects universities, national laboratories, and industry partners to advance quantum technology.
“Governments and the commercial industry are in dire need of this technology,” said Ken Devine, senior product manager for quantum navigation at SandboxAQ. “The geopolitical issues happening across the world, and the ramp up in both jamming and spoofing—Russia, Ukraine, the Middle East, Israel, Iran—everyone's getting super disruptive, and that's not going to go away anytime soon. Everyone is saying, ‘We basically need this yesterday.’”
In May 2023, SandboxAQ completed its first flight tests for the United States Air Force along with commercial aviation partners during two major Air Force exercises that year. In 2024, Boeing conducted what it described as the world’s first recorded flight using multiple quantum navigation systems over four hours without GPS across central U.S.
That test combined two different technologies: AQNav—a magnetic field-based navigation system from SandboxAQ—and an inertial navigation system developed by AOSense.
“The power of quantum navigation is not just that it vastly improves existing inertial navigation systems,” said Caitlin Carnahan, vice president for quantum software at Infleqtion. “It’s more that it represents a new tool, a new angle from which to approach the problem of navigation that can reduce reliance on GPS and overcome issues like spoofing and jamming.”
Quantum navigation uses techniques such as inertial navigation—which tracks movement using accelerometers and gyroscopes—and map matching based on Earth’s magnetic field data rather than traditional terrain maps. AOSense focuses on inertial methods while SandboxAQ applies magnetic mapping; Infleqtion is exploring both approaches.
Jay Lowell of Boeing emphasized evaluating how different sensor technologies might work together: “Maybe that means a tradeoff of performance between sensors in moments where one struggles and the other’s strong,” he said. “Fundamentally it means we just need to understand whether their combined data is better than either one alone.”
Quantum inertial sensors can detect motion changes down to less than an atom's width (a femtometer), making them highly precise compared with conventional devices found in consumer electronics or fitness trackers.
Infleqtion recently finished commercial flight trials for its inertial-based quantum navigation system in the UK with plans for U.S.-based tests ahead. Its Chicago office is also working on SAPIENT—an AI-powered tool designed to integrate outputs from various sensors—which won first place at the U.S. Army's xTechScalable competition.
“[SAPIENT] is focusing on the software side, taking the outputs of multiple kinds of sensors and stitching them all together with AI to provide a more robust navigation signal,” said Pranav Gokhale of Infleqtion. “There is a big gap between an inertial measurement unit and a full inertial navigation system so we’re using AI to fill that gap.”
Magnetic field-based methods compare real-time measurements against known maps created through mineral surveys or geological studies; however map quality varies by region.
“Map quality in the region you’re going to is definitely a factor that gets plugged into how well magnetic navigation can perform,” Devine noted.
He added that variables such as aircraft type plus altitude or speed affect MagNav effectiveness but expects demand for these tools will increase alongside ongoing electronic warfare developments.
“We’ve validated that we can do real-time navigation with this technology,” said Devine. “And that’s huge because the need for it is only going to increase.”
The original version of this story appeared on the Chicago Quantum Exchange website.