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Can Quantum Radar Really Detect Stealth Aircraft?

Quantum radar can detect stealth planes

By Grady ShahPublished 2 years ago 5 min read
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It is possible. Quantum radar has been researched and tried out successfully.

Definition of quantum radar.

Quantum radar is a new type of radar based on the basic principles of quantum mechanics, which mainly relies on sending and receiving quantum signals to achieve target detection.

The principle of quantum radar

In simple terms, classical radar senses the target position, speed, and other information by transmitting electromagnetic signals and receiving the reflected echo signals from the target. In contrast, quantum radar uses only a few or even one photon as an information carrier for target detection, using the particle properties of light.

The so-called stealth aircraft include its non-refractive fuselage, paint, masking, return light wandering, etc. But its machine is steel, action in emitting high temperature, minute by minute governed by information, etc.

Engineers using new detection techniques can unveil countermeasures such as frequency interference, and a team of researchers from the University of Rochester in New York showed how the quantum properties of photons can be used to obtain advanced anti-cloaking techniques. In response, MIT scientists believe the new detection technique relies on the fact that the behavior of any measured photon always destroys its quantum properties, thus allowing the re-simulation of false photon properties by destroying the quantum characteristics of the original photon for deception.

  1. If a radar-cloaked aircraft tries to intercept these photons and resend the false signal, the radar echo is only the area of a bird to mask its true position, but the quantum radar also detects the enemy aircraft in this deception process. This new invention has similar applications in technical engineering, such as quantum key encryption that can be performed similarly, by changing the quantum properties of the key to achieve its purpose. Mehul Malik, a scientist from the Rochester Institute of Optics, used the technology to conduct reflected photon test experiments on long-range stealth bombers, measuring the polarization error rate of reflected signals.

In addition, quantum radar can also emit electromagnetic waves in an entangled state, using one of the entangled photon pairs as an imaging photon and the other as a detection photon. When detection is performed, the imaging photon is left in the quantum memory and the detection photon is emitted, reflected by the target, and re-accepted by the quantum radar. In this way, according to the principle of quantum entanglement, the detection performance of the radar can be significantly improved by comparing the respective quantum states of the two photons in the entangled photon pair.

Modern quantum radar technology

Compared with classical radar, in addition to being less susceptible to interference, quantum radar also has the advantages of higher sensitivity and greater stealth.

Classical radar achieves measurements by transmitting electromagnetic signals to the target and receiving the target-modulated echo signal. The accuracy of the measurement (e.g., distance, angle, speed, etc.) has a signal-to-noise ratio limit of N, which is the average number of detected photons in the signal. Thus, the measurement accuracy limit of classical radar is 1/√N, caused by the scattered particle noise, which is called the standard quantum limit.

And the limit of quantum measurement is limited by the uncertainty principle, the basic criterion of the quantum world, called the Heisenberg limit.

If some strategies are adopted in the measurement process, it will be possible for the measurement sensitivity to break the standard quantum limit and approach the Heisenberg limit, which is 1/N. When the sensitivity of the measurement is better than the standard quantum limit and close to the Heisenberg limit, it is said to be an ultra-sensitive measurement.

In 2012, a research team from the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester successfully developed an interference-resistant quantum radar, which uses photons to image targets. Since any object will change its quantum properties after receiving a photon signal, this radar can detect stealth aircraft and is virtually uninterferenceable.

Following the successful launch of the world's first quantum science test satellite "Mozi", the 14th Research Institute of Electronic Science and Technology Group has made a breakthrough in the development of quantum radar, completing the study of the quantum detection mechanism, target scattering characteristics and experimental verification of quantum detection principle. single-photon detection quantum radar system was successfully developed in Institute 14.

The researchers plan to use the technology in identifying stealthy combat aircraft by modifying the quantum characteristics of the signal when intercepting an enemy air defense radar signal and automatically forming a bird signal to send to the enemy radar, which would seem to achieve traditional stealth purposes, but the new quantum radar easily uncovers the ruse. The MIT researchers believe this is the first imaging system developed using quantum mechanics, and the results are impressive and can be unaffected by any radar jamming measures. However, the equipment needed for quantum detection technology can be developed by laboratories worldwide but has not yet been equipped for the military.

Quantum control technology challenges

The most advanced human technology was achieved in July 2015 by Canadian, U.S., German and Italian scientists who used laser quantum radar that emitted several unmodulated photons that acted at a distance of only 15-20 kilometers and could not be used to detect targets at all and operated effectively at -150 degrees Celsius.

The only controllable quanta in the world are photons, and only photons can be used for quantum radar, but there are three technical difficulties faced.

One is to find the source of quantum entanglement, the world's most advanced technology is the University of Science and Technology of China to do out of 10 photon entanglement, 10 photons are nothing that can be detected.

The second is the modulation of non-classical signals, that is, the operation of quantum coding, spread spectrum, and other operations, this issue is beyond the limits of the current development of human physics.

Third, the monitoring of non-classical signals, the technology has been a breakthrough, available single-photon detectors, and superconducting detectors, but not yet fully mature.

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About the Creator

Grady Shah

Step into the ocean of science and bring you to know a whole new world

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