Lesson learnt from the rise and fall of quantum radar research

The engineering applications of quantum mechanics have seen both successes (mainly in metrology and sensing) and failures. Failures, generally full of teachings, deserve some analysis. A significant failure case is that of quantum radar (QR), studied for over 15 years, with some hundred publications produced, but with neither real-word applications nor operational results. In the QR case, even before the experimental phase, simple evaluations indicate the lack of effectiveness in all practical applications. This “negative” result (in Karl Popper’s falsification theory meaning) was ignored, or censored, for a relatively long period, which may be explained by (i) a not-adequate self-evaluation process, (ii) Pareto’s analysis of belief, and (iii) some researchers’ networking.