Yesterday Microsoft announced that it had signed a contract with the US Army that the IVAS (Integrated Visual Augmentation System) program would now enter the production phase.
The Pentagon, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, announced today that Microsoft has won a contract to build more than 120,000 custom HoloLens Augmented Reality glasses for the United States Army.
The contract could be worth up to $ 21.88 billion over 10 years. As expected, after the information was released, the company's shares showed a growth of close to 2%.
After the two-year test phase, 120,000 HoloLens-based headsets will now be delivered, which will be expanded by Microsoft Azure cloud services. The contract itself is valued at $ 21.88 billion and was concluded over a period of 10 years. Of the 10 years, 5 years have been firmly agreed and 5 years are an option for an extension.
“The system will offer high-resolution night, heat and soldier-worn sensors that are integrated into the display. The system also uses mixed reality and machine learning to enable a "lifelike mixed reality training environment"
Certainly a success, once for the technology itself and also for the still open 10 billion dollar contract for the JEDI (Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure) cloud structure, which the US Army has yet to award. Here, too, Microsoft is still in the running.
These HoloLens glasses, which cost $ 3,500 as standard, show superimposed holograms, which in the hands of a soldier will allow a map and compass to be displayed in real-time while recognizing a terrain as if it were a video game, having a system of aim for the weapon, or the possibility of having a thermal image. All this is what was already integrated into a prototype of the HoloLens modified for the army in 2019 baptized as IVAS.
"IVAS goggles, based on HoloLens and backed by Microsoft Azure cloud services, offer a platform that will keep soldiers safer and more effective," said Alex Kipman, Microsoft technical fellow and person who introduced the HoloLens in 2015. "The program offers greater situational awareness, enabling information sharing and decision-making in a variety of settings."
"The goggles allow soldiers to fight, rehearse and train in a single system," the Army said in a statement.
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