US Army HoloLens delivery has been pushed back to next year

[jsilva]

What just happened? Initially set to be delivered during the U.S. Army's fiscal year of 2021, Microsoft's augmented reality goggles rollout has been delayed by a full year, now expected to be delivered by September 2022. Despite the delay, the Army stated it's "fully committed" to the deal.

In April, Microsoft signed a $21.88 billion deal with the U.S. Army to supply 120,000 Integrated Visual Augmentation Systems (IVAS), augmented reality glasses based on Microsoft's HoloLens technology, over the next ten years. The AR glasses were set to be delivered last month, but the U.S. Army has updated the expected deployment date of the project to FY22, which ends in September 2022, delaying the whole thing by a year.

Microsoft began prototyping the system in 2018 after being awarded a $480 million contract, but the new deal involves creating finalized production versions for soldiers. The system combines high-resolution night, thermal, and soldier-borne sensors into a heads-up display.

In the timeline published by the U.S. Army, an operational test is scheduled for May 2022, and the first units should be equipped with IVAS in September 2022. With the tests, the U.S. Army expects to gather enough data to improve the IVAS, allowing "Soldiers achieve overmatch in Multi Domain Operations." Last month, the U.S. Army ran an adversarial electronic warfare and cybersecurity test to test the equipment and plans to do more throughout FY22.

The IVAS will consist of augmented reality glasses with multiple vision enhancement capabilities. Such features will improve the wearer's perception of the surroundings, helping it make better decisions that can be crucial in a fight scene. Moreover, the IVAS can also be used for practice, providing a "life-like mixed reality training environment," so the soldier can rehearse before engaging in a real-world fight.

Images credit: Reuters

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https://www.techspot.com/news/91774-us-army-hololens-delivery-has-pushed-back-next.html

 

[psycros]

Just more high-tech gear for our traitorous generals to order troops to leave behind for the enemy during the next bungled withdrawal. The military-industrial complex needs to keep selling newer gear so they have to keep creating better enemies, kind of like how game devs and hardware makers work together to keep forcing PC upgrades.

 

[BadThad]

Great, now DO NOT let the Taliban get ahold of these (or any other of our enemies)!

 

[hahahanoobs]

When I first saw the MS AR Minecraft demo I instantly became more interested in it than VR. The floating hands and jerky movements aren't attractive to me. I feel AR will have more value overall than VR, but VR is still a big deal, it's just not for me right now.

I really want to see where this tech goes and hope it gets better fast, because I want to see more!

 

[Uncle Al]

Technology has continued to make any Army more successful BUT there is a learning curve and the more complex the technology, the longer the curve. The one primary ingredient that MUST be tested to an extreme is weather and abuse. The equipment MUST be able to withstand severe temperatures & climates beyond that of the operator. It must be able to withstand being thrown the the ground regularly and battered about ..... combat isn't nice and comfortable. And lastly, it must be very simple to operate. Soldiers aren't stupid, but when the bullets start flying there is only time to react and not a lot of time to think so the technology must be intuitive and dependable.