Microsoft revealed their new $21.88 billion deal to provide 120,000 AR headsets to the US Army over the next 10 years. Microsoft will be developing an Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) headset that will be added to the US Army uniform. The IVAS aims to keep US soldiers safe through the use of this new AR technology.
Alex Kipman from Microsoft shared details on the new AR headsets and how they will help troops during battle.
“The IVAS headset, based on HoloLens and augmented by Microsoft Azure cloud services, delivers a platform that will keep Soldiers safer and make them more effective. The program delivers enhanced situational awareness, enabling information sharing and decision-making in a variety of scenarios. Microsoft has worked closely with the U.S. Army over the past two years, and together we pioneered Soldier Centered Design to enable rapid prototyping for a product to provide Soldiers with the tools and capabilities necessary to achieve their mission”.
The development of IVAS headset began in 2018 – with the US Army partnering with Microsoft to create prototypes of the technology in a $480 Million deal. In 2019, the US army added a cloud services partnership with Microsoft – beating out Amazon, the leader of cloud-based services. Amazon is not happy about this – however – and is currently challenging their up-to $10 billion contract in the US federal court.
With AR penetrating industries across the board, this new IVAS headset could be a huge gamechanger for the US military.