The US Army is taking delivery of a first batch of high-tech combat goggles made by Microsoft Corp., citing encouraging results from testing in the field.<\/p>\n
Assistant Secretary for Acquisition Douglas Bush has \u201ccleared the Army to begin accepting\u201d some of the 5,000 sets of goggles, spokesman Jamal Beck said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Their delivery had been placed on hold over concern about the device\u2019s performance until more rigorous testing took place.<\/p>\n
Based on the test results so far the service \u201cis adjusting its fielding plan to allow for time to correct deficiencies and also field to units that are focused on training activities,\u201d Beck said.<\/p>\n
Microsoft\u2019s Integrated Visual Augmentation System, or IVAS, is expected to provide a \u201cheads-up display\u201d for U.S. ground forces, similar to those for fighter pilots.<\/p>\n
The system \u2014 a customised version of Microsoft\u2019s HoloLens goggles \u2014 would let commanders project information onto a visor in front of a soldier\u2019s face and would include features such as night vision.<\/p>\n
The Army projects spending as much as $21.9 billion over a decade on Microsoft\u2019s combat goggles, spare parts and support services if all options are exercised.<\/p>\n
Bush\u2019s directive to accept delivery, issued last month but not previously disclosed, marks a show of faith in the Microsoft product.<\/p>\n
A final test report, which isn\u2019t expected until next month, is being drafted by the Pentagon\u2019s director of operational test and evaluation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did a good test and will learn from it,\u201d \u00a0Bush said in an earlier statement informed by the emerging results.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Army remains confident that the program will succeed.\u201d Microsoft declined to comment.<\/p>\n
The Army placed its initial order for the 5,000 goggles valued at $373 million in March 2021.<\/p>\n
The order was to be the first of a potential 121,000 over a decade but was placed on hold later last year when the service delayed deployment of the device \u201cto continue to enhance the technology platform.\u201d<\/p>\n
The test report will help Congress decide whether to approve the $424.2 million the Army proposed to spend on the program for the fiscal year starting October.<\/p>\n
The House and Senate appropriations panels proposed deep cuts to the Army\u2019s request pending the test results.<\/p>\n
The system \u2014 a customised version of Microsoft\u2019s HoloLens goggles \u2014 would let commanders project information onto a visor in front of a soldier\u2019s face and would include features such as night vision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":458967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[123,28484,32720],"class_list":["post-458961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gadgets","tag-microsoft","tag-microsoft-hololens","tag-us-army"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458961"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458961"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":458965,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458961\/revisions\/458965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}