Infleqtion runs its Tiqker optical atomic clock at sea for two weeks in a US Navy exercise
Infleqtion operated Tiqker aboard the Navy support vessel RV Merlin during Maritime Big Play Pacific and BARB-26, testing GPS-independent timing at sea.
Infleqtion, the neutral-atom quantum company listed on the NYSE as INFQ, says its Tiqker optical atomic clock ran continuously for two weeks aboard a US Navy vessel during a large military exercise off Southern California. The company announced the demonstration on October 30, presenting it as a step toward fitting quantum timing hardware into naval platforms that must keep operating when satellite navigation signals are lost.
What was announced
According to Infleqtion, Tiqker was operated aboard the Navy support vessel RV Merlin in the Southern California operating area as part of Maritime Big Play Pacific (MBP-P). The exercise is sponsored by the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research & Engineering and drew participants from the US Navy, the US Marine Corps and AUKUS partners Australia and the United Kingdom. The same demonstration also supported BARB-26, a Navy exercise focused on emerging subsea and seabed warfare capabilities.
The company says the clock ran for more than two weeks at sea through large temperature swings and sustained vibration, and that the exercise covered scenarios above and below the surface with both crewed and uncrewed systems. Infleqtion CEO Matthew Kinsella said the test was meant to "gather the operational data needed to advance its integration into naval platforms."
The technical details
An optical atomic clock locks a laser to an extremely narrow transition in an atom and uses a frequency comb to convert that optical reference into usable timing and radio-frequency signals. Because optical transitions oscillate far faster than the microwave transitions used in conventional atomic clocks, they can support more stable timekeeping.
Infleqtion's product page describes the current Tiqker Prime as a 3U, 19-inch rack-mount system weighing less than 22 kg and drawing less than 85 W in steady state, with 5, 10 and 100 MHz RF outputs, pulse-per-second outputs and optical outputs. The company lists a minimum Allan deviation of 5.0 × 10⁻¹³ at one second and says holdover outperformed cesium-beam clocks beyond one day in its testing. It also notes that Tiqker does not provide position or navigation on its own: it supplies a stable local time reference that can be combined with navigation sensors.
Why it matters
Navigation, communications and radar all depend on precise timing, and much of that timing is normally taken from GPS. Infleqtion argues that a shipboard clock able to hold accurate time when GPS is unavailable, jammed or spoofed could keep onboard systems synchronized and reduce dependence on satellite signals.
The Navy trial adds to earlier field tests the company has disclosed: a 2025 deployment aboard the Royal Navy's uncrewed submarine testbed XV Excalibur, where Tiqker operated during multiple dives, and 2024 UK flight trials aboard QinetiQ's RJ100 Airborne Technology Demonstrator with QinetiQ and BAE Systems. As The Quantum Insider reported, the focus of this round was performance under real maritime conditions rather than in a laboratory.
What to watch
The announcement describes the conditions Tiqker endured at sea; the next signals will be whether Infleqtion releases measured performance data from the voyage and whether the Navy moves from demonstrations toward integrating optical clocks into specific platforms. The company's roadmap also points to a smaller, future Tiqker Blade module with integrated lasers and miniature frequency combs.
Sources
Facts on this page come from the sources below, retrieved by DesignQuantum.
- Infleqtion Demonstrates Timing and Navigation Capabilities During the Maritime Big Play Pacific Military Exercise (Infleqtion) infleqtion.com
- Tiqker Optical Atomic Clock (Infleqtion) infleqtion.com
- Infleqtion Tests Optical Atomic Clock During US Navy Exercise (The Quantum Insider) thequantuminsider.com