Imperial College working with Royal Navy on groundbreaking system to replace GPS on ships

[Micael]

I think this could prove to be a quite important development. The less reliance on external navigational means, such as satellites, that we can achieve the more likely I think we are to be able to have military forces remain functional in a future high intensity warfare scenario.

Imperial College working with Royal Navy on groundbreaking system to replace GPS on ships

Academics have been using a ship to explore a quantum accelerometer, the UK’s first commercially viable quantum navigation system

By Danielle Sheridan, Defence Editor
21 May 2023 • 7:00am
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin in the gardens of Buckingham Place on May 6
A new quantum compass that could replace GPS on ships has been tested on water for the first time, The Telegraph can reveal.

Inside an old shipping container onboard XV Patrick Blackett, the Royal Navy’s experimental ship, could be the future of navigation.

Military chiefs have been warning for years of the dangers of relying on GPS, due to the potential for adversaries to jam and manipulate trackers.

In an interview with The Telegraph last year, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the head of the Armed Forces, warned Russia could wage war in space against the West.

He said: “Russia could also attack the GPS systems which play a key role, both military and civilian, throughout the world,” he said. He added that attacking a nation’s GPS was attractive to an adversary because it involves “neither direct casualties nor an attack on another country’s territory,” and is therefore less likely to provoke a direct Western military response.

The quantum accelerometer

However, satellites are relied on in every aspect of human life, from civilian services such as sat-navs used in cars and phones to warships, with experts warning that just one day without access to the satellites would cost the UK £1 billion.

Now, scientists at Imperial College London appear to have solved the problem.

Named after Patrick Blackett, a Royal Navy veteran and Nobel Prize-winning British physicist, academics have been using the ship as an experimental platform to explore the quantum accelerometer, the UK’s first commercially viable quantum navigation system.

According to Imperial College London, accelerometers work by measuring how an object’s speed changes over time. It uses this velocity and the object’s starting point to calculate the new position. The concept was developed in a laboratory and now for the first time has been tested on water. In order to get the precision for long periods of time, the device measures the properties of supercool atoms.

The results, according to Cmdr. Michael Hutchinson, captain of the vessel, are good.

“This device is a self-contained precision navigation instrument and has never been to sea on a naval ship before,” he said.

“This is its first encounter in water, which is an inhospitable environment due to weather and salt water. However, it's working well and displaying good results.”

'Different spheres of warfare'

Speaking on board XV Patrick Blackett as she docked in London - the first time she has been anywhere outside Portsmouth since she started working in June last year- Cmdr Hutchinson said the science was important because “it is testing different spheres of warfare”.

Painted black to stand out from the rest of the fleet, at 42 metres with a crew of five people, XV Patrick Blackett was previously used for the oil and gas market. However, it has been repurposed for trials and, as Cmdr Hutchinson explained, it has a significant amount of automation built into it, “which is why it can go to sea with so few people”.

In the near future, it is hoped the vessel will achieve full automation so that it can drive itself. This is desirable in war fighting situations, where a self driving vessel can be put on a threat and gather intelligence mission without putting people in danger. He stressed such trials were important so as to explore and find “back ups to GPS”. “GPS can be denied and degraded, as we’ve seen with GPS jamming,” he said.

“This could be an answer to that.”

[Pdf27]

I think this could prove to be a quite important development. The less reliance on external navigational means, such as satellites, that we can achieve the more likely I think we are to be able to have military forces remain functional in a future high intensity warfare scenario.

It's literally an improved inertial navigation system. Nice, but they already work pretty well.

[Micael]

I think this could prove to be a quite important development. The less reliance on external navigational means, such as satellites, that we can achieve the more likely I think we are to be able to have military forces remain functional in a future high intensity warfare scenario.

It's literally an improved inertial navigation system. Nice, but they already work pretty well.

Well the thing about previous ones is that they’ve not been quite as good as the GPS ones, especially if you haven’t been able to calibrate them against a known fix point for a while. If we can get ones in service which drastically lessen the accuracy gap to GPS systems then we’ll be in a much better position.

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

Given the potential down-sides, better to have belt, braces, gyro & mag compass, plus that sextant and good charts...

At least the oceanographic satellites, the ones that measure sea 'height', are spotting more and more of the guyots, volcanos shorn to last ice age's low-stand, now well placed to ambush quiet subs...

[warshipadmin]

Well, that wasn't what I expected. I assumed they'd be using a multi sensor neural net approach, incorporating sun position, magnetics, gravity, stars, moon and land, ocean currents and inertial. Good yes overreliance on satellites seems unwise.