At the end of France Quantum devoted to quantum technologies, the Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, has drawn up on the upcoming breaks in the field of military quantum indicating that they are progressing at low noise, in relative institutional indifference. Faced with already engaged strategic adversaries, France intends to accelerate its own rise in power. On this occasion, structuring announcements were formulated.
The tone is posed! “” There is a huge gap between the brutality of the rupture and its perception“, Said Sébastien Lecornu, in the introduction of his words. The minister alerts the strategic silence that still surrounds the quantum, and in particular his military applications. A silence all the more worrying than ” All countries presenting a security challenge for the world are developing a quantum program“.
He explicitly quotes North Korea, Iran, Russia, and of course China. Some of these powers have stopped publishing patents. It is not a technological break, he believes, but a switch to exclusively military, sovereign, closed circuits. “” I think that if there are no more patents filed, it is simply because we are in strategic choices“, He says.
The uses mentioned do not fall under speculation but directly concern operational superiority with underwater detection, new generation sensors, electromagnetic war. “When you start talking about metal mass underwater detection, I don’t make you drawing on what it can mean,” says the minister. Far from the myth of the universal quantum computer, it is the sensor/communication layer that concentrates short -term issues.
Faced with these prospects, several concrete announcements have been formulated:
- Launch of a quantum defense campusdesigned as a secure collaboration space between public and private, civil and military actors. It will be a “circle of confidence”, in the words of the minister, intended to deal with classified subjects linked to the quantum, with specific rules of access.
- Creation of a quantum defense laboratory hosted by the DGA. The post sheet of the future director is being broadcast. This laboratory will be intended to bring technological research closer to operational needs, in a logic of accelerated experimentation.
- Objective of ramp -up, the Ministry of the Armed Forces plans to invest 250 million euros between 2024 and 2030 in the quantumand works to mobilize Additional 200 millionin order to “completely change scale”.
This project is part of a broader decompartmentalization objective. The Minister calls for breaking the cultural boundaries between fundamental research and operational needs, between public universes and private companies, between civil and military. He greets the example of the AI, structured in a few years around the Ministerial Amica agency. The quantum must follow a similar trajectory, without harming creativity, but by ensuring coherent management. “What we have managed to do on artificial intelligence is due to the fact that we gave order without damaging creativity. »»
He also returns to the issue of human resourcescalling for designing Hybrid professional careers allowing talents to circulate between sectors. The experience of the atom will not be enough to model these new flows: ” On the quantum, it will not be possible to do as in the 1960s. You have to build something else. »»
Another structuring point, the articulation between public investment and private initiative. Thales is cited as an example of an industrialist who took the lead without waiting for public order. The state plays here a role ofleverbut also a trusted signal to warm an still cautious ecosystem.
The Minister recalled that defense technologies sometimes remain frowned upon in certain financial circles. For the anecdote, he mentioned the case of French SMEs working on nuclear deterrence, which had difficulty obtaining loans or banking services because of their activity.
The question of Industrial synchronization is also central, while France defines the contours of its military platforms from the 2040s to 2060 (future burst, new generation aircraft carrier, defense space) The integration of quantum sensors becomes critical. “” It is as if we wanted to make a nuclear propulsion submarine without mastering the atom. »»
The importance of experimental orders In a classified setting was recalled, as for quantum sensors applied to electronic war. Work is notably engaged on the antennas, electromagnetic interference and the miniaturization of components.
Sébastien Lecornu calls for assuming a Incremental risk takingin the service of sovereignty. “What matters is that we accelerate,” he said. The stake is less to master everything than not to be overwhelmed. And not to equip the French forces with powerful but technologically desynchronized platforms in twenty years.
