The Army plans to grant upstart weapons maker Anduril management of one among its highest-profile and long-troubled tasks often known as the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) pending last Department of Defense (DoD) approval, founder Palmer Luckey introduced in a weblog publish Tuesday.
IVAS was initially awarded to Microsoft in 2018 to develop augmented actuality headsets for troopers primarily based on a ruggedized model of HoloLens. The preliminary funds for IVAS was set at $21.9 billion.
Anduril will now assume management of the contract. While Microsoft is being eliminated because the prime contractor, it’s not being kicked off the challenge. The firm will proceed to be the cloud supplier, in accordance with Microsoft.
Anduril will likely be tasked with oversight of manufacturing, the long run growth of each {hardware} and software program, and the supply timelines, Microsoft mentioned.
The preliminary thought was to provide troops a heads-up show with options like a thermal sensor, Tactical Assault Kit software program (which supplies varied varieties of mission-critical info), and maps.
Anduril’s Lattice software program had already been added to Microsoft’s IVAS headsets, the corporate introduced in September. Lattice added pc imaginative and prescient AI and different options that helped the headset detect, observe, and classify objects.
But IVAS has had an extended historical past of issues.
Back in 2022, the DoD’s inspector normal issued a report saying IVAS wasn’t doing a ok job serving the folks — that means the troopers — who will use the headsets. The report warned, “Procuring IVAS with out attaining consumer acceptance might end in losing as much as $21.88 billion in taxpayer funds to discipline a system that troopers might not need to use, or use as supposed.”
Microsoft’s prototypes suffered from technical points, as prototypes are inclined to do, equivalent to detecting digital objects, sources informed Breaking Defense in 2023.
In August, the Army indicated it was open to pulling Microsoft off because the prime contractor though the tech big vowed it could enter any new bidding course of to aim to maintain it, Breaking Defense reported.
Luckey’s weblog publish on the Anduril win waxed poetic and coated a number of celebratory floor, together with diss to a competitor. The weblog publish obtained downright comical at sure factors.
“Tactical heads-up-displays that flip warfighters into technomancers and pair us with weaponized robotics have been one of many merchandise within the unique Anduril pitch deck for a purpose,” he wrote.
“If Anduril had been greater than a dozen folks when IVAS was first getting spun up all these years in the past (no less than the Tragic Heap guys didn’t win, our nation actually dodged a bullet there), I do consider our loopy pitch might have gained this from the beginning,” he continued.
Tragic Heap is Luckey’s unkind nickname for Magic Leap, reportedly among the many 80-some corporations vying to take over this challenge. Others included Palantir, and Kopin, which builds shows utilized in F-35 helmets, Breaking Defense reported.
Luckey additionally teased that a complete record of recent options have been deliberate for the challenge however didn’t title them. Instead he jokingly redacted that paragraph.
“Whatever you’re imagining, nonetheless loopy you think about I’m, multiply it by ten after which do it once more. I’m again, and I’m solely getting began,” he promised.
Whether the challenge, below its soon-to-be new prime contractor Anduril, will retain your entire $22 billion funds stays to be seen. Threats to chop funding, or cancel this system altogether, have been ongoing for years.
For Microsoft’s half, the corporate’s VP of combined actuality Robin Seiler wrote in its public assertion, “We are extremely pleased with the work our groups have put in to assist the U.S. Army rework its idea of a soldier-borne, AR headset into actuality with the IVAS program.”
Still, 2025 is already shaping as much as be a hell of a 12 months for Luckey and Anduril. The firm is in talks to lift as much as a $2.5 billion spherical at a $28 billion valuation. And it introduced that the placement of its new weapons-building megafactory will likely be in Ohio.
Note: This story was up to date to incorporate Microsoft’s assertion and to make clear that the official switch continues to be pending DoD approval, though each corporations have introduced the change within the contract.
