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27 October 2024

The Pentagon Needs a Quantum Strategy

Elise Stefanik

As our adversaries across the globe become increasingly emboldened, it has never been more critical that America maintain its technological edge by investing in quantum computing. Air Force Research Lab’s Information Directorate in Rome, New York, has long been the epicenter of the Air Force’s quantum information science research and development efforts. For years, the lab has worked diligently to conduct critical applied research across many quantum technologies and drive the Air Force’s ability to maintain superior information technological advantage against our adversaries. It is time the Department of Defense (DoD) did the same. As quantum advantage approaches, we must prepare for it by ensuring our quantum computers are industrially useful and able to solve critical operational problems for the DoD.

In pursuit of this goal, the DoD must execute three critical lines of effort. First, it must fully embrace, and Congress must fully fund, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI) program. This program, in partnership with AFRL-Rome’s systems engineering and broad quantum expertise will benchmark industrial efforts to build a useful quantum computer. This novel effort has yet to be conducted anywhere else across government. DARPA’s innovative approach to running the QBI program is the most significant federal work done in quantum computing to date and must be fully supported within the DoD and by Congress.


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