Andundil takes control of the $ 22 billion VR military helmet program in Microsoft
The army granted the control of the arms reached and the control of one of its most prominent and longest known projects under the name of an integrated visual integration system, announced the founder Palmer Luckey A blog article on Tuesday.
Ivas was initially awarded to Microsoft in 2018 to develop augmented reality headsets for soldiers based on a robust version of Hololens. The initial IVAS budget was set at $ 21.9 billion.
Andundil will now take control of the contract. Although Microsoft is deleted as a main entrepreneur, it is not launched from the project. Microsoft will continue to be the cloud supplier, according to Microsoft.
Andundil will be responsible for monitoring the production, future development of hardware and software and delivery times, said Microsoft.
The initial idea was to give troops a head -up display with features such as a thermal sensor, tactical assault kit software (which provides different types of critical information) and cards.
Andundil’s network software had already been added to Microsoft IVAS helmets, Andruil announced in September. Lattice added a vision of the AI computer and other features that helped the helmet to detect, follow and classify objects.
But IVAS has had a long story of problems.
In 2022, the Inspector General of the DOD published a report saying that Ivas did not do a job well enough at the service of people – which means that soldiers – who will use the helmets. The report warned, “Obtaining IVA without reaching user acceptance could cause waste up to $ 21.88 billion in taxpayers to align a system that soldiers may not want or use as expected.”
Microsoft’s prototypes were suffering from technical problems, as prototypes tend to do so, such as detection of virtual objects, sources have been told Breaking Defense in 2023.
In August, the army indicated that it was opened to withdraw Microsoft as a main entrepreneur, although the technology giant promised that it has entered any new tender process to try to keep, Breaking Defense reported.
Luckey’s blog post on Andundil Win has targeted poetic and has covered a lot of celebration field, including dissolved. The blog post became completely comical at certain times.
“The tactical posters that transform combatants into technologies and associate with armed robotics were one of the products of the Pitch Andundil original for a reason,” he wrote.
“If Andundil had been more than a dozen people when the IVAs were filmed for the first time all these years ago (at least the Tragic heap The guys did not win, our country really dodged a bullet there), I believe that our crazy land could have won it from the start, “he continued.
Tragic Heap is Luckey’s nickname for Magic Leap, among the 80 companies in the running to take over this project. Others included Palantant and Kopin, who builds displays used in F-35 helmets, Breaking Defense reported.
Luckey also teased that a list of new features has been planned for the project but did not name them. Instead, he joked this paragraph in a joke.
“Whatever you imagined, as crazy as you imagined I am, multiply it by ten and start again. I’m back and I’m just starting, “he promised.
It remains to be seen whether the project, under its new primordial entrepreneur, will retain the entire budget of $ 22 billion. Threats to reduce funding or completely cancel the program have been underway for years.
For the part of Microsoft, the vice-president of the mixed reality of the company, Robin Seiler, wrote in his public declaration: “We are incredibly proud of the work that our teams have put to help the American army to transform his Concept of a soldier’s helmet and soldier actually with reality with the IVAS program. »»
However, 2025 already promises to be a year’s hell for Luckey and Andundil. The company is in talks to raise up to $ 2.5 billion Round an assessment of $ 28 billion. And he announced that the location of its new weapon construction Megafactory will be in Ohio.
Note: This story has been updated to include Microsoft’s declaration.
