It’s About Time program aims to establish a pilot manufacturing pipeline for tactical-grade optical clocks to demonstrate the capability to produce quantum and quantum-enabling technologies at scale.
The program builds on the success of the optical clocks prototyped within the Robust Optical Clock Network (ROCkN) program, which demonstrated compact, long-holdover time synchronization with precision many orders of magnitude beyond GPS-grade timing, tested by various national laboratories and in the field.
Successfully transitioning high-precision, low size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) timing technology to the Department of War (DoW) requires the ability to scale production to a rate far beyond what has been demonstrated to date for quantum technologies.
In addition, It’s About Time will also integrate these optical clocks into various DoW platforms to demonstrate transformative, beyond-GPS capabilities that are enabled by the introduction of picosecond-level timing precision into operational paradigms.
This effort is part of a comprehensive DARPA strategy to accelerate the scale and adoption of both quantum and quantum-integrated technologies.
