"Indian Military Ready to Put Long-Range Quantum Key Distribution on the Line"
The Indian military celebrated the country's Independence Day by announcing the adoption of locally developed Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) technology that can operate over distances of 150 kilometers. QKD is a technology for securely distributing encryption keys that could expose communications to an adversary. This technology makes it difficult to intercept encryption keys by transmitting each bit of a key using a single photon. Since photons are quantum particles, observing them causes them to change state. That change can be detected through a signal indicating that a key has been compromised and is thus no longer useful. Therefore, the technology has the potential to improve the security of military communications in both peacetime and conflict, but QKD is difficult to implement. While Toshiba and other companies provide a commercial service, current implementations, such as a network in London, span only 32 kilometers. The Indian military announced that it has tested technology that can travel over 150 kilometers and plans to purchase and deploy it. It has mentioned its use for critical data, voice, and video across endpoints, as well as the potential for disrupting modern warfare. India's technology was developed by QNU Labs, a startup that collaborated with India's defense tech incubator iDEX. Entropy-as-a-service, a quantum Virtual Private Network (VPN), and a secure messaging service are all available from QNU Labs. The Indian government has not stated which of those it plans to acquire, but it has issued a Request For Proposal (RFP) for the company's technology and has promised to put it into production. This could put India's defense forces ahead of those of other countries. NATO, for example, has spoken publicly about QKD as a potential future capability. It is possible that many other countries have developed and deployed QKD for their armed forces but have kept quiet about it in case the technology falls short. This article continues to discuss the Indian military's adoption of the QKD technology to improve communications security.
The Register reports "Indian Military Ready to Put Long-Range Quantum Key Distribution on the Line"