What Do You Know About Quantum?

Imagine waking up tomorrow to discover GPS no longer works.

Not because the satellites disappeared. Because they’re being jammed, spoofed, or denied by an adversary.

Suddenly, military formations, autonomous systems, precision weapons, commercial aircraft, financial networks, and even your smartphone are all trying to answer the same question:

Where am I?

That isn’t science fiction. It’s one of the reasons you’ll hear a lot more about quantum over the next decade.

Now, before anyone accuses me of moonlighting as a quantum physicist, let me be clear. I still need someone else to explain qubits to me over a cup of coffee.

My lane is different.

I’ve spent my career working alongside companies developing technologies most people outside their field couldn’t begin to explain. Artificial intelligence. Autonomous systems. Undersea sensing. Cybersecurity. Critical minerals. And more recently, quantum communications.

My job isn’t becoming the nation’s foremost expert in each technology. My job is helping brilliant innovators translate sophisticated ideas into something equally challenging:

Why does this matter?

Members of Congress, military leaders, acquisition professionals, and senior executives make decisions across hundreds of issues. They don’t have years to study every emerging technology. Sometimes you get a meeting. Sometimes you get a page. Increasingly, you might get the equivalent of a 30-second video clip.

A recent experience reminded me why that matters.

Several years ago, I met with the founder of a company developing a quantum communications solution. The science was impressive. The engineering was real.

But he had a different problem.

The technology was moving faster than the government’s ability to understand where it fit, how it would be evaluated, and ultimately how it could be funded.

He wasn’t just ahead of competitors.

He was ahead of the market.

Around the same time, another consultant confidently declared that we’d never see practical quantum computing in our lifetime.

Maybe he’s right.

Maybe he isn’t.

The more interesting observation is that both conversations made the same assumption.

They treated quantum as though it were one technology moving along one timeline.

It isn’t.

Quantum at the Cocktail Party

The next time someone brings up quantum over drinks, here’s all you really need to know.

Quantum Computing is the headline grabber. The promise is extraordinary computational power capable of solving problems today’s computers simply can’t. The engineering challenges remain significant, and reasonable experts disagree about when—or even if—it reaches widespread practical use.

Quantum Communications focuses on securing information in fundamentally different ways.

For defense and national security, it represents a potential leap beyond today’s methods of protecting communications. But success won’t depend on technology alone. It also depends on trusted standards, certification, infrastructure, and government confidence.

Quantum Sensing may prove to be the quiet achiever. GPS denial is already a recognized national security challenge. Military forces, autonomous systems, aircraft, and precision weapons all depend on knowing exactly where they are. Quantum sensing offers potential answers through advances in navigation, timing, detection, and measurement.

Three technologies.

Three different problems.

Three different timelines.

Technology at the Speed of Government

One lesson I’ve learned working with innovative companies is that breakthrough technology and government adoption rarely move at the same pace.

Companies I work with regularly solve incredibly difficult technical problems. The government faces a different challenge. It has to determine where the capability belongs, how it should be tested, whether it aligns with emerging requirements, how it integrates with existing systems, and eventually how it will be funded.

I see this pattern repeatedly.

Many founders assume their greatest challenge is proving the technology.More often, their challenge is helping government understand why the technology matters and building the confidence required for adoption.That’s especially true in cybersecurity.

One of my clients develops advanced cryptographic solutions designed to protect sensitive information in highly secure environments. From the outside, it’s easy to wonder why government can’t simply move faster when better technology emerges.

The reality is more complicated.

The systems protecting our nation’s most sensitive information aren’t changed just because a new capability performs well in a demonstration. They operate inside a deliberate environment of testing, certification, interoperability, and trust.

That distinction matters.

Some barriers to adoption are unnecessary. Closed architectures, vendor lock, and outdated approaches to integration can prevent better solutions from reaching users who need them. Encouragingly, many of those barriers are beginning to fall as government pushes toward more open systems and faster pathways for innovation.

But removing unnecessary friction doesn’t eliminate the need for rigorous validation.When lives, missions, and national security information are at stake, the question isn’t only: Does it work?

The question is: Can we trust it?

That brings us back to quantum.

The most important thing to understand may not be how quantum works. I’ll happily leave that explanation to the physicists. Rather, it’s understanding that quantum isn’t one thing.

Quantum computing may someday redefine what machines are capable of solving.

Quantum communications may change how we think about securing information.

Quantum sensing may help answer critical defense challenges like navigating when GPS is unavailable.

Different technologies.

Different problems.

Different paths to adoption.

The future rarely arrives all at once. It usually shows up one capability at a time.

And when it does, success belongs not only to those who create the breakthrough, but to those who help the rest of us understand why it matters.

The Translation Advantage

Whenever people ask about quantum, they’re often asking the wrong question. They want to know when quantum computing will arrive.

A more useful question is:

Which defense problems can quantum technologies begin solving today?

That’s a much different conversation.

The winners won’t always be the organizations with the smartest engineers. More often, they’ll be the ones that explain a complex capability in terms decision-makers immediately understand.

Government leaders don’t need a lesson in quantum mechanics.

They need to know why they should care.

That’s the translation challenge.

Are you a good translator when your moment comes?