Qunnect, the Brooklyn‑based quantum networking pioneer, secured a contract from the U.S. Air Force on 9 October 2025 to extend its metro‑scale entanglement‑based networks for national defence. The agreement arrives as governments worldwide have already poured more than $55 billion into quantum technologies, signalling that networking is becoming the next frontier of secure connectivity.
How Qunnect’s Metro‑Scale Networks Are Redefining Defense
The Air Force’s mandate is clear: validate that quantum links can meet stringent defence‑grade specifications and accelerate their adoption for critical missions. Qunnect’s Carina suite, built around entanglement‑based hardware that runs on standard telecom fibre at room temperature, offers the uptime and fidelity required for such high‑stakes environments. In New York City and Berlin, the company has already demonstrated that its networks can sustain continuous operation while preserving quantum coherence across kilometres of commercial fibre.
“Qunnect is the first company to have deployed metro‑scale quantum networks on commercial fiber in real‑world environments,” said Noel Goddard, CEO of Qunnect. “Now, with the Air Force’s support, we’re extending those capabilities to validate defense‑grade specifications and accelerate national security use cases.”
Entanglement, the phenomenon that allows two particles to remain linked regardless of distance, underpins the network’s tamper‑evident nature. Any attempt to intercept the quantum signal collapses the entangled state, instantly alerting the parties that the link has been compromised. This property makes quantum key distribution (QKD) far more robust than classical encryption schemes that rely on mathematical assumptions. For the Air Force, such guarantees translate into secure communications for command and control, intelligence sharing, and future distributed‑compute missions that will run on a quantum‑enabled internet.
Qunnect’s partnership with national laboratories, telecom giants, and state agencies such as New Mexico’s Department of Energy illustrates the breadth of its defence‑ready platform. By integrating with existing fibre networks, the company sidesteps the need for costly dedicated quantum channels, a key advantage for rapid deployment in operational theatres.
The $55 Billion Global Quantum Investment Race
The $55 billion earmarked for quantum research and development is not merely a headline figure; it represents a pivot from speculative science to commercial viability. Industry forecasts predict that the quantum networking market will reach nearly $17 billion by 2032, driven by adoption in government, telecommunications, and finance. Qunnect sits at the nexus of this trend, attracting capital from high‑profile investors such as Cisco Investments, Airbus Ventures, and Quantonation.
The company’s commercial traction is evident in its growing customer base. Financial services firms now use QKD to guard high‑value transactions, while critical infrastructure operators employ entanglement‑based position verification to detect tampering of energy grids. Data centres and telecom operators are beginning to interconnect supercomputers via quantum links, laying the groundwork for a distributed quantum internet that will enable new classes of algorithms and sensing applications.
Mael Flament, Qunnect’s co‑founder and chief technology officer, summed up the market’s evolution:
“Around the world, quantum networking is emerging as the lynchpin for secure connectivity,” said Mael Flament. “We’re seeing entanglement‑based networking mature from lab concept to deployed infrastructure, it’s operationally relevant for defense today and foundational for the quantum internet of tomorrow.”
The convergence of capital, policy, and technology suggests that quantum networking will no longer be a niche pursuit. Instead, it is becoming a mainstream infrastructure component, comparable to the early days of the internet when a handful of universities and government labs first experimented with packet switching.
Why Quantum Networks Outperform Traditional Encryption
Traditional encryption schemes, RSA, elliptic‑curve cryptography, and others, rely on the computational difficulty of certain mathematical problems. Quantum computers threaten to solve these problems exponentially faster, rendering current keys obsolete. Quantum networks sidestep this vulnerability by using the laws of physics rather than mathematics to secure data.
In practice, a quantum link distributes a secret key via entangled photons. Any eavesdropper’s measurement inevitably disturbs the system, producing a detectable error rate. This tamper‑evident feature means that a compromised link can be identified in real time, prompting immediate key regeneration or rerouting. The result is a fundamentally different security model: the network itself signals when it has been breached, rather than relying on post‑hoc cryptanalysis.
Beyond encryption, entanglement offers new capabilities. Position verification protocols can confirm the physical location of a device with high precision, useful for securing supply chains and preventing spoofing. Intrusion detection systems can flag anomalous quantum traffic patterns that indicate a cyber‑attack. In the long term, entanglement will enable distributed quantum computing, where processors in different cities collaborate on a single algorithm, and precision sensing, where correlated measurements achieve sensitivities beyond classical limits.
Industries are already translating these benefits into tangible services. Governments use quantum links to secure diplomatic communications. Banks employ QKD to protect money‑transfer channels. Energy operators monitor grid integrity through entanglement‑based tamper alerts. Healthcare providers safeguard patient data across cloud platforms while gaining access to quantum‑accelerated drug‑discovery tools.
From Berlin to New York: Testing Real‑World Quantum Internet
Deployments in Berlin and New York City provide the most comprehensive evidence yet that quantum networks can survive the rigours of everyday urban environments. In Berlin, Qunnect’s network spans a network of municipal fibre, delivering end‑to‑end key rates of several megabits per second while maintaining a fidelity above 99 %. In New York, the system operates across a dense mesh of underground cables, achieving similar performance metrics despite higher ambient noise levels.
These trials were not limited to laboratory conditions. Qunnect worked closely with local utilities, city planners, and telecom carriers to integrate its hardware into existing infrastructure. The result is a fully operational quantum link that can be expanded or reconfigured without significant downtime. The company’s Carina platform is modular, allowing new nodes to be added by simply splicing into the existing fibre and installing a compact entanglement source.
The forthcoming Albuquerque deployment, co‑ordinated with state agencies in New Mexico and research teams at Montana State University, will push the network’s reach into the Southwest, testing the limits of fibre quality and environmental stability. By covering diverse geographic and climatic conditions, Qunnect aims to prove that its technology is robust enough for nationwide rollout.
These real‑world experiments serve a dual purpose. First, they validate the technical claims of quantum networking vendors. Second, they build trust among potential adopters, who can observe the system’s performance in situ. As the quantum internet moves from concept to reality, such demonstrations will be essential for securing the next wave of investment and regulatory support.
Looking Ahead
The Air Force contract, the $55 billion investment climate, and the growing body of operational deployments together signal that quantum networking is transitioning from an experimental curiosity to a critical infrastructure asset. Qunnect’s ability to embed entanglement‑based hardware into standard fibre networks at room temperature gives it a distinct advantage over competitors that rely on cryogenic systems or bespoke fibre.
For defence, the implications are profound. Secure, tamper‑evident links will underpin the next generation of command, control, and intelligence systems, reducing the risk of cyber‑espionage and sabotage. For the private sector, the same technology will protect financial transactions, safeguard intellectual property, and enable distributed quantum computing that could accelerate breakthroughs in materials science, cryptography, and AI.
The quantum internet, still in its infancy, promises to reshape the way data is shared and processed. As governments, telecom operators, and enterprises begin to stake claims on this new frontier, the race to build a resilient, scalable network will intensify. Qunnect’s early successes on commercial fibre suggest that the first steps are already underway, and the next decade will likely see quantum links woven into the fabric of global communications, ushering in an era where physics, not mathematics, guarantees security.
