By
Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on March 31, 2021 at 4:08 PM
Soldiers test the latest, ruggedized version of the IVAS targeting goggles at Fort Picket in October 2020.
UPDATE that contract is “IDIQ-like” WASHINGTON: The Army awarded Microsoft a five-year contract to produce a militarized version of its HoloLens augmented reality goggles. With options to extend for another five years and a maximum potential value of $21.88 billion, the award is a major vote of confidence in a program whose 2021 funding Congress cut by $230 million.
The Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) contract was awarded last Friday but announced today by both the Army and Microsoft. The $21.88B figure was in a Microsoft email, not in either announcement. There was no
By Stephen Nellis and Paresh Dave (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp on Wednesday said it has won a deal to sell the U.S. Army augmented reality headsets based on its HoloLens product and backed by Azure cloud computing services. The contract could be worth up to $21.88 billion over 10 years, a Microsoft spokesman told Reuters. Over the past two years, Microsoft has worked with the Army to on the prototyping phase of what is called the Integrated Visual Augmentation System, or IVAS. The company said Wednesday that the Army had moved into the production phase of the project. In a blog post, Microsoft Technical Fellow Alex Kipman said the headsets are designed to deliver enhanced situational awareness, enabling information sharing and decision-making in a variety of scenarios.
US Army awards Microsoft USD21.9 billion IVAS contract
01 April 2021
by Ashley Roque
US Army soldiers will begin receiving the new Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) later this year, and to prepare for the fielding the service has awarded Microsoft a USD21.9 billion production contract.
On 31 March, the service announced it was moving the company’s militarised HoloLens 2 augmented reality (AR) system from a rapid prototyping effort into production and rapid fielding. The goal is still to have the first unit equipped with the capability sometime between July and September.
In a separate email to
Janes, the service confirmed the contract award value and said the multibillion-dollar deal spans 10 years and includes a five-year base period and a five-year option.
Microsoft won a nearly $22 billion contract to supply U.S. Army combat troops with its augmented reality headsets. Microsoft and the Army separately announce