Marine Corps Capt. Anthony Burns is a Naval Postgraduate School student. His research focuses on creating an atomic gyroscope for the Department of Defense to navigate in GPS-denied environments. He is developing an inertial sensor that measures acceleration and rotation of various DOD platforms, enabling them to navigate independently without relying on satellite communications.
This technology could enhance navigation capabilities and maintain operational effectiveness even in the face of advanced adversarial capabilities.
Capt. Anthony Burns' research focuses on creating an atomic gyroscope for the Department of Defense to navigate in GPS-denied environments. He is developing an inertial sensor that measures acceleration and rotation of various DOD platforms, enabling them to navigate independently without relying on satellite communications.
This technology could enhance navigation capabilities and maintain operational effectiveness even in the face of advanced adversarial capabilities.
"If you're a submarine, that's got to come up within a meter - we can't do that right now, depending on the length of time. We are hoping that the sensors that we're developing will do that and be able to execute missions much better. And we are thinking submarines, but we're not limited to submarines. Any environment that is a GPS denied environment as our pilots go into battle space where GPS might be jammed. This is another application."
During my time here at NPS and through my research here in the Quantum Sensing Lab, I've grown to understand that quantum technologies can provide a significant boost in the precision and accuracy of a lot of the systems that the DOD currently uses across numerous platforms, including computing, navigation and timing that will significantly propel our capabilities into the future.
Current development in quantum technologies is critical for the United States to maintain an edge over competing nations. If we don't continue to invest in this technology, other nations will and they will be able to gain small to great advantages over some of our current capabilities. And so I think it's very critical that the United States continues to invest in these technologies in order to maintain a strategic advantage.
The greatest impact that I have gotten so far from being here at NPS has been able to work with a lot of the joint services and our partner nations through the classroom environments and outside, as well as in research. This is important in order to strengthen those ties and gain different perspectives on how to solve key problems that the DOD is facing.
The Department of the Navy and Department of Defense should continue to fund directed research at specific problems, as well as provide funding for auxiliary research that could provide breakthroughs that we can't predict right now in order to solve future problems.
I've had a really good time here at NPS. There is a ton of resources that I've taken advantage of. The professors here are top notch, and the research that they do is really focused on specific problems that the DOD is trying to solve right now.
NPS' location on the Central Coast, specifically near Silicon Valley, enables it to develop really close ties with a lot of industry partners as well as non-DOD academic institutions to be able to provide a lot of resources for us to face a lot of the challenges and figure out solutions to those challenges. In quantum sciences and in other areas, NPS’ location and its proximity to a lot of technological centers and academic centers enables it to leverage those resources in order to find solutions to a lot of challenges in quantum sciences and in other areas.
