Microsoft will give the US Army a military version of HoloLens for intensive testing - Pentagon wants to spend more than $20bn to buy 121,000 mixed reality headsets

The US Army will receive an improved version of Microsoft's mixed reality goggles by the end of the month. The development is called IVAS (Integrated Visual Augmentation System) and is based on HoloLens. Now the v1.2 version is ready.

Here's What We Know

The Redmond-based company plans to hand over 20 IVAS 1.2 prototypes to the military for intensive testing. Based on the tests, the US Army will decide on the deployment of mixed reality headsets. In the event of another failure, the programme may close.

20 IVAS 1.2 prototypes will be evaluated by two squads of soldiers. Tests of the mixed reality goggles will take place at the end of August. The tests will check technical characteristics, reliability and performance in low-light conditions.

Last autumn it became known that IVAS causes nausea, headaches and eye fatigue in soldiers. Symptoms appeared hours after work and were found in more than 80 per cent of soldiers.

The U.S. Army requested $425 million, but Congress, because of the problems mentioned above, only allocated $40 million to fix the flaws and $125 to produce an updated version. If Microsoft can solve all the problems and the programme survives, the US Department of Defence is ready to invest $21.9bn over 10 years to buy 121,000 headsets.

But before that, a contract will be awarded to produce IVAS 1.2 for a second series of tests. The agreement must be signed by the end of September 2023. If successful, a full-scale combat test will follow in the first half of 2025.

Source: Bloomberg