WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed a pair of executive orders late today to advance quantum computing, cybersecurity, and sensors, with one of the orders giving the Pentagon until fall 2028 to field three new types of quantum sensors.
Most of the military’s role falls under Executive Order 14411 on “quantum innovation,” which aims “to ensure that the United States maintains a strategic technical advantage” across multiple quantum technologies. That includes helping the Energy Department build a working quantum computer to accelerate scientific projects that traditional computing methods cannot crack. But EO 1411 also looks at other, lower-profile applications of the same physical principles, like secure communications and novel sensors.
The hyper-sensitivity of quantum particles to outside interference — which has proved a major problem in developing reliable, error-free quantum computers — turns out to be a huge advantage for a sensor, allowing it to pick up subtle signals that more conventional methods miss. The potential applications, which the military has tested in the air and outer space, include alternative forms of precision navigation when GPS is jammed, as is happening routinely around war-torn Ukraine and the Middle East.
“Quantum sensing is here today [for] navigation in face of GPS jamming and spoofing,” Jack Hidary, founder and CEO of quantum software firm SandBoxAQ, told Breaking Defense. SandBoxAQ has previously tested the technology for the Air Force.
Other labs have researched using quantum sensors to hunt hostile submarines without sonar.
The Pentagon has been field-testing quantum sensors — but EO 14411 orders it to deploy some of those sensors to operational forces in just 27 months. “Within 60 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of War shall identify at least three next-generation quantum sensor projects to prioritize in order to field these sensors by September 30, 2028,” the EO states, using the secondary name for the Department of Defense.
The EO also tasks an array of other agencies, chiefly Commerce, Energy, NASA, and the National Science Foundation, to explore both quantum sensing and another related technology, quantum networking — which has historically been a major focus for Chinese research and development but relatively neglected in the US.
EO 14411’s other big development program is to build “at least one” reliable, powerful quantum computer for scientific research and deploy it at a to-be-determined Energy Department site. The Pentagon is named first in a long list of agencies to support the Energy quantum computer program, with an additional call-out to the NSA.
Accompanying EO 14411 is Executive Order 14409, which focuses on enhancing cybersecurity against hackers using quantum computers, principally by replacing current, vulnerable encryption algorithms with new “post-quantum cryptography” (PQC). This EO, however, only affects civilian agencies and their contractors, with “national security systems” specifically exempted and the Pentagon playing a purely advisory role.
The Defense Department and its contractors have been working to implement PQC for years already. In essence, through this executive order, Trump is now ordering the rest of the federal government to catch up to the Pentagon on quantum cybersecurity.
