NATO Must Integrate Quantum for Defense and Security

Cold War environment puts NATO at risk of being obsolete in technology

Image source: Part of the quantum key distribution setup at the Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic. NATO

Hey Everyone,

It’s no surprise that even NATO is admitting it needs to evaluate, test and investigate its approach to quantum technologies.

Innovative projects led by scientists in NATO and partner countries are breaking new ground to harness the power of quantum to make communications impossible to intercept and hack. Given the potential implications of novel quantum technologies for defense and security, NATO has identified quantum as one of its key emerging and disruptive technologies.

I am noticing more articles relating Quantum computing to the future of the Defense and military sector. When even Google spun out a cybersecurity and A.I. related company to the future of Quantum tech, you had to take notice. Here assuming the probability of global conflict with the likes of China, North Korea and Russia are mounting heading into 2023 and throughout the 2020s.

It’s taken the West about 5-10 years late to realize the mounting importance of quantum technologies to keep up with China and its allies in the cybersecurity and military communications of tomorrow. Who said National defense spending isn’t good for innovation?

The situation is thus: NATO allies approved a new Strategic Concept at the 2022 Madrid Summit, which stated that emerging and disruptive technologies (EDTs) are critical to shaping the future of the Alliance. NATO set up the SPS program to explore the potential of EDT innovations including artificial intelligence, autonomy, bioengineering and, especially, quantum technologies.

The NATO Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has successfully tested secure communication flows in a post-quantum world using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) provided by the United Kingdom-based company Post-Quantum. The NATO Cyber Security Centre, which is run by the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency), protects NATO networks 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

The global climate of potential conflict is mounting with the situation in Ukraine and Taiwan, as well as weird behavior from North Korea. North Korea, which launched two more unidentified ballistic missiles over Japan again today, in early October, 2022.

Is NATO behind in Quantum Tech?

It’s not clear to the layperson how advanced China’s own research and development into Quantum communications and cybersecurity are, but we can assume they are relatively advanced. Much of the SPS quantum research to date has focused on the field of quantum communications, including the encryption and secure transmission of information using quantum key distribution (QKD) and post-quantum cryptography (PQC). These aim to mitigate the threat from near-term quantum computers and other technology that could decipher secret communication.

The application of these quantum technologies in the security and defense sectors could help to future-proof the transmission of information, protecting it from increasingly advanced hacking systems and contributing to NATO’s efforts to maintain its technological edge.

NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS) Program research and development projects have been examining the security-related applications of quantum technologies, addressing their three main fields: computing, sensing and communications.

• Computing

• Sensing

• Communications

• Cybersecurity

Post-Quantum Cryptography

SPS scientists recently demonstrated that it is possible to securely transmit information without the possibility of decryption by a hacker, even using a quantum computer. Five research groups based in Malta, Slovakia, Spain, the U.S. and Belgium showed they could communicate using a secure PQC protocol that could not be broken.

Quantum Key Distribution

QKD usually has a limited range over optical cables, but SPS researchers have been investigating techniques to send cryptographic keys to an endpoint located several hundred kilometers away. And NATO researchers in the Czech Republic are studying the application using QKD technology over a 5G network to explore its potential to enhance cybersecurity in future communication systems.

Outside the PQC and QKD use cases, SPS researchers are also using quantum computing and sensing to improve remote detection and measurement technologies to levels that they currently cannot achieve.

As these technologies will bring profound new capabilities both for civilian and military purposes, quantum technologies have received significant interest from industry and governments in recent years.

The White House announced on May 4th, 2022 that President Joe Biden has signed a National Security Memorandum (NSM) aimed at maintaining U.S. leadership in quantum information sciences and to mitigate the risks of quantum computing to the Nation's security.

Americans have not yet grappled with just how profoundly the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution will impact our economy, national security, and welfare. For Europe and NATO it’s even worse.

When the Google spin-off “Sandbox AQ”, talks about the intersection of artificial intelligence, security and quantum technology they are talking about something China has been working on for many years.

Even as Silicon Valley is losing its edge, with a stock market collapse of companies like Meta, the U.S. innovation engine is not firing in all cylinders any longer. This leaves Microsoft, Google, Apple and Amazon as the last great “firewall” of the U.S. corporate monopoly capitalism as the defenders of the free world. They are just beginning to take Quantum computing seriously.

In 2023, I’ll be covering AQ Supremacy as much as in 2022 I have been covering “AI Supremacy”. I rarely define what this actually means.

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