LONDON: A top-secret lab in the UK is developing the country’s first quantum clock to help the British military boost intelligence and reconnaissance operations, the defence ministry said Thursday.
The clock is so precise that it will lose less than one second over billions of years, “allowing scientists to measure time at an unprecedented scale,” the ministry said in a statement.
“The trialling of this emerging, groundbreaking technology could not only strengthen our operational capability, but also drive progress in industry, bolster our science sector and support high-skilled jobs,” Minister for Defence Procurement Maria Eagle said.
The groundbreaking technology by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory will reduce reliance on GPS technology, which “can be disrupted and blocked by adversaries,” the ministry added.
It is not a world first, as the University of Colorado at Boulder developed a quantum clock 15 years ago with the US National Institute of Standards and Technology.
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