The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has awarded New York-based Qunnect an 18-month contract in May 2025 to advance its quantum networking technology for defense applications, marking a strategic shift in American military investment toward secure, next-generation communication systems. This development underscores growing global competition in quantum technologies, with over $55 billion invested worldwide, as the U.S. seeks to counter rapid advancements by strategic rivals. Qunnect’s “second-generation” approach uniquely enables entanglement-based quantum networks to operate over existing commercial fiber optic infrastructure at room temperature, eliminating the need for specialized cryogenic equipment and significantly enhancing deployment feasibility. The technology leverages quantum entanglement and the observer effect to create tamper-evident communications, where any interception attempt disrupts the signal and alerts the sender, offering a physics-based security layer far superior to conventional encryption. Validated in real-world deployments across New York City, Berlin, and Montana, Qunnect’s Carina system has demonstrated high fidelity and uptime, positioning it as a critical component for future defense-grade secure networks and the foundational infrastructure for a global quantum internet.​