Microsoft Wins Enormous Contract to Supply HoloLens for Combat Soldiers, US Army Says

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Microsoft has won an enormous contract to produce vision-enhancing combat force headsets to the US Army, Program Executive Office Soldier (PEOS) announced in a press release on Wednesday.
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"(T)he US Army awarded Microsoft Corporation a fixed price production agreement to manufacture the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS)," the release said. "This award transitions IVAS to production and rapid fielding to deliver next-generation night vision and situational awareness capabilities to the Close Combat Force (CCF)."

In the contract, Microsoft will deliver to the US Army more than 120,000 HoloLens augmented-reality headsets for $21.88 billion over a ten-year period, according to reports.

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"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," the release said.

The headsets will provide improved situational awareness, target engagement, and informed decision-making necessary to achieve overmatch against current and future adversaries, the release added.

A standard-issue HoloLens, costing $3,500, lets its wearer see holograms over their actual environments and can display a map and a compass with thermal imaging to reveal people in the dark and can aim a weapon, according to the release. 

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