Quantum manufacturing’s moment has arrived

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has launched a new effort to move quantum timing technology out of research labs and into production lines, announcing a program to pilot manufacturing of tactical-grade optical clocks and demonstrate their use on military platforms. The initiative, called It’s About Time, is intended to tackle the persistent gap between laboratory breakthroughs and rugged, fieldable systems that can deliver GPS-independent navigation, precise synchronization and resilient communications.

“For too long, the quantum community has driven the state-of-the-art exclusively within the laboratory, but these innovations rarely make it into the field,” said Mukund Vengalattore, program manager for It’s About Time and several related quantum sensing programs.

“No one has successfully attempted to scale quantum manufacturing because integrating, miniaturizing, and ruggedizing the complex, quantum-adjacent components, such as advanced lasers and integrated photonics, is exceptionally difficult even within a single prototype – let alone at scale. Solving this manufacturing, ruggedization, and integration bottleneck is a DARPA-level problem that will open the door to a large opportunity space across several areas relevant to the Department of War.”

DARPA is building on its Robust Optical Clock Network (ROCkN) program, which it says advanced from benchtop demonstrations to compact prototypes tested both in national laboratories and in the field over roughly five years. Those efforts aimed to show “long-holdover” timekeeping that far exceeds GPS-grade precision, a foundation for resilient operations when satellite signals are unavailable or contested.

“From the outset, we did not want ROCkN to be just another clock program – content with building a fragile prototype here, or with fabricating a small component of a larger system there. We wanted to demonstrate that exquisite laboratory-grade performance could be attained, with the correct approach, in operational environments relevant to the DoW. Along the way, we also recognized the need for specialized quantum testbeds to prototype and validate the underlying quantum-enabling technologies,” Vengalattore said.

A companion effort, Optical-Atomic System Integration & Calibration (OASIC), established testbeds and procedures that DARPA says clarified component specifications, measurement protocols, packaging approaches and standardization needed for larger-scale manufacturing and compatibility with legacy timing systems. Agency officials frame OASIC and It’s About Time as parts of a broader push to accelerate adoption of quantum and quantum-adjacent technologies.

“In the quantum domain, the conventional wisdom – that physicists demonstrate the art of the possible in a highly controlled laboratory environment, and then engineers go on to build the eventual system – is fundamentally flawed. As demonstrated within ROCkN, the components, architecture, system-level design choices, testing, and validation need to be closely tied to both the underlying quantum physics and to the operational requirements of the technology,” Vengalattore said. “Building upon ROCkN, OASIC, and It’s About Time, the intent is to translate this paradigm of resilient quantum manufacturing and rapid quantum technology transition to other areas of interest including quantum RF sensors, infrared imaging systems, and beyond.”

DARPA’s immediate target is to scale production of optical clocks—devices that measure time using optical-frequency transitions in atoms—to rates well beyond today’s bespoke, technician-assembled builds. The agency also plans to integrate these clocks on defense platforms to showcase “beyond-GPS” capabilities enabled by picosecond-level timing.

“By demonstrating that robust mass production is possible, we can create the economies of scale necessary to rapidly adopt these ruggedized, size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) relevant capabilities across DoW platforms in operationally relevant environments,” Vengalattore said. “Precision timekeeping and synchronized communication, operating independently of GPS in contested environments, and other related capabilities creates unparalleled resilience and strategic alignment for our warfighters. Building this pipeline now ensures a critical first-mover advantage for both American industry and for the joint force.”

As part of the rollout, DARPA said it has awarded a contract to IonQ—described by the agency as having purchased ROCkN performer Vector Atomic—to stand up the optical clock manufacturing pipeline using Vector Atomic’s expertise. The agency expects a manufacturing facility to open by mid-2027, with deliverable production units available within a year of the facility’s completion.