Microsoft Strikes $22 Billion Deal on Army AR

The US Army announced that it will work with Microsoft on the production phase of the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) program. They plan to move from rapid prototyping to production and rapid fielding.

The IVAS headset, based on HoloLens and Azure cloud services, delivers a platform that will enhance situational awareness, enabling information sharing and decision-making in a variety of scenarios. Microsoft has worked closely with the US Army over the past two years, and together pioneered Soldier Centered Design to enable rapid prototyping for a product to provide Soldiers with the tools and capabilities necessary to achieve their mission.

Financial Times reported a representative of the software company said the deal involved supply of at least 120,000 headsets and could reap up to $21.9 billion depending on the final number delivered. The agreement comes as a big boost for Microsoft’s AR ambitions. It announced plans to release a second version of its HoloLens headset in 2019, which was at the time expected to retail for around $3,500.