Kristen Smith
The U.S. Air Force has extended a direct-to-phase-II Small Business Innovation Research contract it awarded to SandboxAQ in January 2023 to continue the development of the company’s system designed to provide navigation capabilities for military and commercial applications without relying on global navigation satellite systems.
The contract extension provides additional funding for the AQNav navigation technology, which uses a quantum magnetometer system and quantitative artificial intelligence models to acquire data from the Earth’s crustal magnetic field and pull the signal from the background magnetic noise for unjammable, unspoofable, real-time navigation, SandboxAQ said Friday.
“In an era of rapidly evolving technology and increasingly sophisticated adversaries, it is critical that the USAF maintain tactical air dominance in highly contested environments when adversaries employ robust GPS spoofing and targeted jamming,” said Jen Sovada, president of global public sector at SandboxAQ and a 2024 Wash100 awardee.
“AQNav offers a highly precise and secure position and navigation solution that can withstand adversarial disruptions, making it suitable for the most demanding military applications,” she added.
SandboxAQ will work with AFWERX to explore additional AQNav configurations that could meet the navigation hardware requirements of various aircraft platforms, including unmanned aerial systems.
AQNav was previously tested during the USAF’s Exercise Golden Phoenix and Exercise Mobility Guardian exercises.
