07/05/2025
Q-CTRL has achieved a major milestone by successfully field-testing a new quantum-assured navigation system that outperforms conventional GPS backups by up to 50x. In real-world ground and airborne trials, the system—named Ironstone Opal—delivered highly accurate, GPS-independent navigation, addressing one of the most urgent challenges in modern transport, defense, and autonomous systems.
With GPS outages increasingly used as tools of warfare and sabotage—impacting over 1,000 flights per day and costing billions—Q-CTRL’s technology offers a reliable alternative. Using quantum sensors to detect subtle magnetic signatures of Earth’s crust, the system can pinpoint location even in complete GPS denial scenarios. It’s passive, undetectable, and immune to jamming or spoofing.
Unlike traditional inertial navigation systems (INS), Ironstone Opal uses AI-powered software to ruggedize delicate quantum sensors, achieving accurate positioning without pre-calibration or special maneuvers. During a ~500 km flight, the system achieved a positioning uncertainty as low as 0.01%, far exceeding other GPS-free methods like Doppler radar or LiDAR.
This marks the first time commercial quantum advantage has been achieved in a practical setting—far from lab experiments or speculative computing benchmarks. Q-CTRL’s work has caught the attention of defense bodies across the US, UK, and Australia, with field trials underway for both aerial and ground-based deployment.
From drones to airliners, and military platforms to autonomous vehicles, Q-CTRL’s magnetic navigation system is proving to be a scalable, stealthy, and robust solution for the next era of navigation—no satellite required.
