SandboxAQ flight-tests AQNav quantum navigation on Northrop Grumman's Lumberjack drone

SandboxAQ/AQNav

SandboxAQ says its AQNav magnetic navigation software flew on Northrop Grumman's Lumberjack attritable drone, a low-cost unmanned aircraft. The company calls it the first reported magnetic navigation test on a platform of this class, and says it works without satellite signals.

• AQNav uses measurements of the Earth's magnetic field to keep an aircraft's position, so it does not depend on GPS or any transmitted signal.
• The release says the system was paired with visual navigation on the drone, which it calls the first reported pairing of the two on an attritable one-way attack platform.
• SandboxAQ says its engineers installed the AQNav software into existing systems in less than an hour.
• No contract with Northrop Grumman is mentioned; the test is part of the Defense Innovation Unit's Transition of Quantum Sensing program, which is evaluating AQNav against defense use cases.