Microsoft was awarded a fixed-price production agreement by the US Army to manufacture and supply AR headsets based on the company's HoloLens. The headsets will be used by 120,000 members of the Army Close Combat Force (CCF). The contract may be worth up to USD 21.88 billion, a Microsoft spokesperson told CNBC.
The IVAS is a United States Army programme to provide infantry with an augmented reality headset. The award moves the AR headset's prototype stage to production and rapid fielding, with the army to work with Microsoft on the production phase.
The IVAS headset, based on HoloLens and augmented by Microsoft Azure cloud services, delivers a platform that is meant to keep soldiers safer and make them more effective. The programme delivers enhanced situational awareness, enabling information sharing and decision-making in a variety of scenarios. Microsoft worked closely with the US Army over the past two years, and together it pioneered Soldier Centered Design to enable rapid prototyping for a product to provide soldiers with the tools and functionalities necessary to achieve their mission.
This new award comes after the US Army awarded a USD 480 million deal to the company in 2018 to create IVAS prototypes.
