Microsoft Accepts Mission for HoloLens Partnership with U.S. Army

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The U.S. Army announced that it will work with Microsoft on the production phase of the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) program, which launched in 2019, as it moves from rapid prototyping to production and rapid fielding.

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 with enhanced situational awareness, information sharing, and decision-making. 

IVAS integrates emerging technologies, including:

“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,” Microsoft said in a statement.

The contract is worth up to $21.88 billion, according to Microsoft, with an initial five year timeline and an option for an additional five years.

The IVAS project has been called a “non-traditional” collaboration between the Army and a technology company, rather than a defense contractor. According to both organizations, the direct collaboration has significantly increased the speed of development for the project.

According to the Army, “The IVAS aggregates multiple technologies into an architecture that allows the soldier to fight, rehearse, and train using a single platform. The suite of capabilities leverages existing high-resolution night, thermal, and soldier-borne sensors integrated into a unified heads-up display.

It continued, “The system also leverages augmented reality and machine learning to enable a life-like mixed reality training environment so the CCF can rehearse before engaging any adversaries.”

The R&D by Microsoft through military funding—both in the prototype phase as well as the upcoming production and fielding phases—will no doubt transfer to Microsoft’s future enterprise HoloLens development. Enterprises can expect improvements in size, battery life, interactivity, and more.

It’s always intriguing when military R&D “lens” a hand to commercial tech.