On October 9, Qunnect announced that it has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Air Force to advance components of its quantum networking technology for national defense applications. The contract comes as governments around the world invest more than $55 billion in quantum technologies, with networking increasingly recognized as the next frontier of secure connectivity.
Qunnect is the first company to deploy metro-scale, entanglement-based quantum networks on commercial fiber, a critical step towards a secure communications infrastructure already validated in New York City and Berlin. With best-in-class uptime and fidelity, these high-performance deployments reflect a broader market shift: entanglement-based networking is now operational, demonstrating the performance and scalability required for defense and commercial use cases while laying down essential infrastructure for the future quantum internet.
“Qunnect is the first company to have deployed metro-scale quantum networks on commercial fiber in real-world environments,” said Noel Goddard, CEO of Qunnect. “Now, with the Air Force’s support, we’re extending those capabilities to validate defense-grade specifications and accelerate national security use cases.”
Quantum networks are tamper-evident: while traditional networks rely on mathematical encryption, quantum networks use quantum physics to secure and share data. Capabilities extend from near-term applications—such as position verification and intrusion detection—to laying the foundation for distributed computing and sensing in the future quantum internet.
“Around the world, quantum networking is emerging as the lynchpin for secure connectivity,” said Mael Flament, co-founder and chief technology officer. “We’re seeing entanglement-based networking mature from lab concept to deployed infrastructure—it’s operationally relevant for defense today and foundational for the quantum internet of tomorrow.”
Source: Qunnect
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