Wanted: enabling technologies in quantum computing for artificial intelligence (AI) and cyber security

Summary points:

• The four-year QC3 program seeks to enhance fault-tolerant quantum computing for secure, high-reliability applications like AI, cryptography, and data processing.
• The focus involves qubit characterization, calibration, and control to reduce errors and improve long-term quantum computation performance.
• Companies must submit white papers by 7 Aug 2025, to participate in this initiative to push quantum computing toward fault tolerance.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – U.S. Army researchers are asking industry to develop enabling technologies in fault-tolerant quantum computing for applications like data processing, cryptography, and artificial intelligence (AI) that require high reliability and security.

Officials of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) in Research Triangle Park, N.C., issued a broad agency announcement (W911NF25S0002) last week for the Quantum Characterization, Calibration, and Control (QC3) program.

Quantum computing seeks to process information using quantum bits (qubits), rather than traditional bits like traditional computers use. Qbits manifest themselves as zeros and ones at the same time, which is different from traditional bits that exist as ones or zeroes -- but not both.

Quantum computing particularly lends itself to advanced cyber security, AI, machine learning, simulating complex systems, and analyzing vast sets much more quickly than traditional computers can.

Maintainable high performance

The QC3 project seeks to develop low error rates in large-scale computing and fine-tune these computers for high performance that can be maintained over deep algorithm runtimes. the project focuses on three topics: characterization, calibration, and control.

The overall goal is to address the circuit gate-based model of quantum computation overhead and inefficiencies, and improve the accuracy and stability of characterization, calibration, and control for early fault-tolerant quantum computing applications.

Military applications demand high reliability and security, especially for tasks like data processing, cryptography, artificial intelligence, and multi-domain operations.

Characterization seeks to advance the state of the art in quantum computing to assess the performance of qubit operations in multi-qubit circuits and to extract error-models.

Multi-qubit circuits

Calibration seeks to bring up multi-qubit circuits for high-performance operations near or better than fault-tolerance thresholds.

Control, meanwhile, seeks new techniques to operate multi-qubit circuits operating near or better than fault-tolerant thresholds, accounting for the specifics of error-models for the circuit.

QC3 will be a four-year program. Companies interested should email white papers no later than 7 Aug. 2025 to [email protected].

Email questions or concerns to the Army's T.R. Govindan at [email protected]. More information is online at https://sam.gov/opp/1b04c6cbe28e496e90a6d9e1e5a866bc/view.