Army looks to Microsoft to supply augmented reality headsets for combat missions

WASHINGTON – Microsoft Corp. has won a $480 million contract to supply prototypes for augmented reality headsets to the U.S. Army for use on combat missions and in training. Bloomberg reports. Continue reading original article

The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:

29 Nov. 2018 -- The contract, which eventually could lead to the military purchasing more than 100,000 headsets, is to “increase lethality by enhancing the ability to detect, decide, and engage before the enemy,” according to a government description of the program.

The Army and the Israeli military have already used Microsoft’s HoloLens headsets in training, but plans for live combat would be a significant step forward.

HoloLens is one of the leading consumer-grade headsets, but a large consumer market doesn’t yet exist; a video made for the European Patent Office this spring said it had sold about 50,000 devices. That’s about half the number the Army expects to buy through its augmented reality program for combat missions, which is called the Integrated Visual Augmentation System, or IVAS.

Related: Augmented reality market expected to grow by nearly 80 percent each year through 2020

Related: Department of Defense invests in delivering augmented reality technology to foot soldiers

Related: Augmented reality for warfighters

John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics

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