C12 and Thales Develop QuantumTrack for Real-Time Radar Tracking

Insider Brief

• C12 and Thales have developed QuantumTrack, a hybrid quantum-classical approach for real-time multi-target radar tracking that won the 2026 Quantum Effects Award for Quantum Computing Hardware.
• QuantumTrack matched the time-to-solution of the best classical solver in the reported benchmark and was about 100 times faster than competing quantum annealers on C12’s Callisto emulator.
• The project has reached TRL 5, with C12 and Thales targeting a TRL 6 demonstration on C12’s physical processor and potential defense-system deployment.

PRESS RELEASE — C12, the French quantum computing company building carbon nanotube spin-qubit processors, and Thales, the global technology leader in Aerospace, Defence, and Cyber & Digital, today announced QuantumTrack, a hybrid quantum-classical solution for real-time multi-target radar tracking. The project has won the 2026 Quantum Effects Award in the Quantum Computing Hardware category, and the two partners are presenting it at the Quantum Effects trade fair in Stuttgart, Germany, on October 6. 

On the benchmark, QuantumTrack matched the time-to-solution of the best classical solver and delivered results around 100 times faster than competing quantum annealers. These results were obtained on Callisto, C12‘s quantum emulator, which faithfully reproduces the physical behavior of a processor with up to 20 qubits. QuantumTrack The project reflects a broader, ongoing collaboration between C12 and Thales that spans both science and industry.