By Dave Graham
ZURICH, May 7 (Reuters) – Swiss-German firm Terra Quantum said on Thursday it had won a U.S. Air Force contract to supply software that simulates secure military communications in contested battlefield conditions, ahead of a Nasdaq listing valuing it at $3.25 billion.
The quantum technology firm did not disclose the terms of the agreement with the world’s largest air force, and the deal is part of longer-term cooperation between the pair.
“The delivery of this platform to the U.S. Air Force represents an important step in transitioning quantum-secure communications from research into operational capability,” said Terra Quantum’s German founder and CEO, Markus Pflitsch.
The deal is notable due to current tensions between Europe and the United States over military cooperation due to disagreements linked to the conflict with Iran.
The platform simulates how quantum-secured communications would perform in difficult battlefield conditions, including jamming, weak or unreliable signals, and limited bandwidth. This allows military users to test and refine the technology before deploying it on actual missions.
Separately, Terra Quantum said it had deployed a quantum key distribution link connecting Maltese telecom firm Melita’s two main data centres across a live fibre network.
(Reporting by Dave GrahamEditing by Bernadette Baum)
