Minister Calls for Military Aircraft to Be Quantum Ready

Fighter jets being sold today will be in service for decades and risk obsolescence if they are not ready to incorporate quantum computing, a U.K. defense minister has said.

Speaking at the Global Air and Space Chiefs’ Conference, part of the Royal International Air Tattoo air show, James Heappey acknowledged that military applications for quantum computers are still in the early stages of development.

However, he said of the current generation of aircraft being sold: “None of them have quantum computing in yet. All of them will be in service when quantum computing arrives.”

Heappey said that the ability to crunch data is holding back the ability to understand where a target is in the noise of the battlespace and decision-making often still comes down to human judgment.

He added that quantum computing will profoundly change warfare, saying that when they are in use, “then the vastness of the noise of the ocean, or the vastness of the business of the skies or the vastness of everything that’s happening with a human population on land can be understood and crunched by computers that are working at a speed that we can’t imagine.”

Heappey said quantum computing will significantly change what armed forces can do, so military hardware should be ready to use the technology when it becomes available. He described the advent of quantum as a “tank versus cavalry, machine guns versus humans moment.”

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Heappey did not address the risk of quantum computing attacks on encrypted military data, or the opportunities presented by quantum encryption, communication and navigation. However, he raised eyebrows when he suggested quantum computers could be installed on aircraft.

“We have to be able to buy aircraft, design aircraft where the moment that those computers are good to go, you can rip out whatever is there and chuck in the quantum computer,” he said.