On September 9, 2026, SandboxAQ completed the first flight test of its AQNav magnetic navigation system on Northrop Grumman's Lumberjack drone. The Lumberjack is an attritable one-way attack drone, approximately 1.8 meters long, designed for strike, swarming, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions.
The AQNav system uses quantum sensors and AI algorithms to determine location by reading magnetic anomalies of the Earth's crust and comparing them to a pre-existing map. This method allows for navigation without satellite signals, meeting Required Navigation Performance (RNP) standards and outperforming traditional inertial navigation systems.
SandboxAQ, a spinout from Alphabet, has conducted more than 40 sorties and accumulated over 200 flight hours across various military aircraft since 2023. Previous evaluations of the technology were performed on the C-17 Globemaster III strategic airlifter and during military exercises starting in January 2023.
The development of the system was supported by several Small Business Innovation Research contracts with the U.S. Air Force. The company positions magnetic navigation as one of its most mature capabilities within a broader suite of quantum sensing applications for defense.