Defense giant Lockheed Martin is applying Einstein’s ‘spooky action at a distance’ to a far-out concept for a ‘quantum radar’ that would be a (forgive the pun) quantum leap over current radar technology. The company filed a patent on the idea in Europe, according to this article in the U.K. Guardian:

Radar

The company has designed and patented a scanner based on the principle of quantum entanglement – a far out concept, even by the weird standards of the quantum world. It says the device could penetrate any type of defence, to identify hidden weapons and roadside bombs from hundreds of miles away.

Quantum entanglement says that two particles can be joined so that whatever happens to one must also happen to its partner, however far apart they are.

Einstein called it ‘spooky action at a distance’. Lockheed Martin prefers: ‘Quantum radar is capable of providing information about targets that cannot be provided using classical radar systems.’

European patent number EP1750145 describes ‘radar systems and methods using entangled quantum particles’. It says such a device could ‘visualise useful target details through background and/or camouflaging clutter, through plasma […]