ANALYSIS/OPINION:

China may have accidentally announced a new breakthrough in submarine detection when the Chinese Academy of Sciences temporarily posted news of a new quantum, magnetometer breakthrough. The information was quickly removed after a journalist pointed out its military applications.



“I was surprised by the removal,” says Stephen Chen of the South China Morning Post, who raised the issue. “I have been covering Chinese science for many years, and it is rare,” reported New Scientist.



Magnetometers have been used for decades to detect changes in magnetic fields submarines produce. However, a supercomputing quantum interference device, or SQUID, could extend the range to unheard of dimensions. Submarines could be detected up to six kilometers away, or even longer with further noise reduction.



“The new magnetometer, built by Xiaoming Xie and colleagues at the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, uses not one SQUID but an array of them. The idea is that by comparing their readings, researchers can cancel out some of the extra artefacts generated by motion. This “would be relevant to an anti-submarine warfare device”, says David Caplin at Imperial College London, who works on magnetic sensors,” reported New Scientist.



But who needs a quantum supercomputing interference device when you can just ram a U.S. Navy ship that is part of our missile defense shield over and over again to remove the American naval threat from the Pacific?





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