Reliable Entanglement Verification for Scalable and Deployable Quantum Networks

The Department of the Air Force is actively developing quantum technologies to maintain a strategic and operational edge. Quantum entanglement plays a key role in secure communications, high-precision sensing, and distributed computing. Harnessing entanglement is critical to building tamper-proof quantum networks, secure command and control systems, and advanced intelligence and surveillance tools. The Air Force Research Laboratory Quantum Networking Group has identified an urgent need for a low-size, weight, and power entanglement tomography and validation system that is reliable, deployable, and scalable. Current methods for validating entanglement rely on fragile, expensive research prototypes that are not designed for real-world, distributed, multi-node quantum networks. There is no commercial off-the-shelf solution that offers near real-time validation with robust synchronization, making deployment outside of laboratory settings impractical.Qunnect’s Entanglement Validation Device addresses these limitations by delivering a fast, field-deployable entanglement measurement system in a 1U rack unit form factor. It integrates liquid crystal retarders and high-extinction polarizers for high-fidelity quantum state tomography, built-in single-photon detectors for entanglement characterization, and embedded time-tagging and synchronization electronics for real-time, multi-node validation. A dedicated software suite with application programming interfaces ensures seamless integration into existing infrastructure. The system is designed to support quantum networks for secure military communications, long-distance entanglement swapping and teleportation experiments, hybrid quantum networks interconnecting different quantum hardware, and quantum-enhanced sensing for intelligence and reconnaissance applications. AFRL's Information Directorate and other Department of Defense stakeholders will be able to deploy this automated entanglement validation and tomography system to enhance mission readiness, reduce operational complexity, and accelerate the adoption of scalable quantum networking solutions. By incorporating this system into Air Force Research Laboratory testbeds and future deployments, this project will help transition quantum networking from an experimental capability to an operational defense technology.