US Army Halts Microsoft IVAS Headset Rollout

The lauded mixed reality (MR) headsets were set to give soldiers a massive advantage in combat situations

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Published: October 14, 2021

Demond Cureton

The US Army has officially halted the procurement of Microsoft’s Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) headsets, defence journal Jane’s reported on Wendesday.

The publication revealed the news after Brigadier General William Glaser, Synthetic Training Environment Cross-Functional Team Head at the Army Futures Command, told audiences of the developments at an Association of the US Army (ASUA) annual conference in Washington, DC.

According to Jane’s, several military officials confirmed the Army would halt use of the headsets, which are based on the Microsoft HoloLens 2.

The setback comes a year after the Redmond, Washington-based firm inked a deal with the military valued at $22 billion to produce thousands of IVAS headsets over several years.

Gen Glaser added Douglas R Bush, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology, ordered the initial halt to the programme, stating the US Army was,

“essentially doing a reset of that program, figuring out what is the appropriate timeline and the where is the technology”

US Army’s IVAS Ambitions

The news comes after Army personnel and soldiers tested the IVAS systems in field operations for over 80,000 hours to test their combat readiness in real-time situations, XR Today reported in June.

The military kit was set for release in September, but current reports reveal the setbacks in the IVAS system rollout. Previous reports lauded the headsets for the military use cases, which included providing soldiers with thermal imaging, night vision, integrated global positioning systems, and other features.

Users could also receive holographic projections in visors to read maps, detect friendly and enemy forces, weapon sight pairing, communication with others, and other key tools, Microsoft said at the time.

The US Army began testing additional IVAS headsets with soldiers in aircraft later the same month, which aimed to boost situational awareness, waypoint finding, and enemy detection for soldiers.

The Army Futures Command and Project Manager IVAS trialled the platform for soldiers piloting Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters in combat situations, reports said at the time.

 

 

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