THE Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has successfully completed military field trials of a scalable and practically secure, fibre-based Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) system, thereby moving ahead in providing safe and reliable strategic communication systems. Quantum communication provides fundamentally unbreakable encryption, making it a dual-use technology with applications in securing data in strategic sectors such as defence, finance, and telecommunications, as well as in protecting national security-related communications. “Leveraging their lab-level proof of concept and experience of previous trials, the DRDO team, along with their industry partner Taqbit Labs, Bengaluru, has successfully architected and productised this advanced system to secure critical networks,” the DRDO said in a statement. “This milestone successfully lays the foundation for large-scale, multi-hop quantum networks that is indigenously designed and can seamlessly safeguard national communication infrastructure against emerging cyber threats in the quantum era,” it added.

 

Last year, DRDO had successfully demonstrated an experimental advancement in quantum communication through the DRDO-Industry-Academia Centre of Excellence (DIA-CoE) at IIT Delhi. This secure communication paved the way for real-time applications in quantum cyber security, including QKD, the development of quantum networks and the future quantum internet. These efforts align with India’s broader objectives to advance quantum technologies for national development. The project has been executed under the ‘Design and Development of Photonic Technologies for Free Space QKD’ programme, sanctioned by DRDO’s Directorate of Futuristic Technology Management. Quantum entanglement-based QKD offers significant advantages over traditional prepare-and-measure method by enhancing both security and functionality. Even if communication devices are compromised or imperfect, the use of quantum entanglement ensures secure key distribution. Any attempt to measure the entangled photons disturbs their quantum state, allowing authorised users to detect the presence of an eavesdropper.