US Army Comes Closer to Deploying Microsoft HoloLens

The US Army is finally going to get its hands on some custom Microsoft HoloLens.

Bloomberg reports(Opens in a new window) that Assistant Secretary for Acquisition Douglas Bush “cleared the Army to begin accepting” a modified version of Microsoft’s augmented reality headset in August. Now the Army is waiting to see if the Pentagon will approve the deployment of these devices.

Microsoft was awarded a contract for an Integrated Visual Augmentation System based on the HoloLens headset in March 2021. The company was reportedly promised more than $21 billion to produce approximately 120,000 units of these custom headsets for the Army.

“The IVAS headset, based on HoloLens and augmented by Microsoft Azure cloud services, delivers a platform that will keep Soldiers safer and make them more effective,” Microsoft said(Opens in a new window) in a March 2021 blog post about the deal. “The program delivers enhanced situational awareness, enabling information sharing and decision-making in a variety of scenarios.”

The Army said in October 2021 that it would have to delay the device’s rollout, however, pending further evaluation by the Pentagon. Bloomberg reports that the Pentagon’s director of operational test and evaluation plans to publish its findings some time in October.

Microsoft won’t be expected to deliver all 121,000 headsets after the Pentagon’s report arrives. Instead, the Army has reportedly paid $373 million for an initial shipment of 5,000 units, which it will test in the field before approving the procurement of the remaining headsets.