Home industry defence-technology uS military to get first delivery from $22B Microsoft HoloLens deal

US military to get first delivery from $22B Microsoft HoloLens deal

Defence Technology

CIO Bulletin
2022-09-12

After being in the works for years now, Microsoft has begun shipping the first lot of military HoloLens headsets to the US military.

After being showcased in demos way back in 2015, Microsoft has been pretty quiet on the tech in recent years when it comes to consumer releases. Microsoft’s deal to supply the United States Army with HoloLens tech was first signed back in 2018 and reported to be around a $480 million contract to help increase the lethality of combat missions. It wasn’t until 2021 that Microsoft officially signed a much costlier $22 billion contract with the army for military-grade HoloLens supply.

There have been delays with the deal thanks to the system needing tweaks to be fully army-ready. Though there have been reports of troubles within Microsoft’s HoloLens team and leadership for some time that likely did not help move things along. Still, that’s a big deal and the US Army wants the tech.

The HoloLens augmented reality tech provides a heads-up display giving the wearer additional information via a system called Integrated Audio Visual System (IVAS). It’s been compared to what a pilot in a jet might see, built into a helmet for soldiers that also include night vision.