New Army tech ‘sees’ through battlefield blind spots 3 hours ago Soldiers drive their M3A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicles to reach a phase line where they will move into a defensive posture during platoon scout training. (Staff Sgt. Andrew Porch/Army) Advances in ground robots, small drones, artificial intelligence, machine learning and data processing are being combined in an effort to help soldiers “see” the battlefield in ways hardly imagined until recently. Four Army Research Lab projects at various levels of development aim to improve soldiers’ situational awareness by enabling them to spot roadside bombs, track targets, distinguish people in crowds and even merge their own human vision with computer vision for a full-scope view of the tactical edge of combat.
Quick Hits Federal Communications Commission is asking the public to download and run its
Speed Test app on their mobile and home wireless devices, with the goal of collecting more reliable and comprehensive data on high-speed broadband access across the U.S. GCN has more. The
Army has pulled back its solicitation for a $161.1 million human resources application development contract to rework the bid after getting complaints from several bidders including the incumbent. Washington Technology has the detaisl. Artificial intelligence leaders from the Defense Innovation Unit, General Services Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology and Department of Agriculture will present at
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Last week the Army awarded Microsoft the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) contract, a potentially $21 billion undertaking by the Army to develop next-generation night vision and “situational awareness capabilities” in a Heads Up Display. Unlike Microsoft’s last multi-billion dollar contract award, the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI), which is still pending before the Court of Federal Claims more than a year after Amazon filed its bid protest challenging the award in November 2019, IVAS is unlikely to experience the same fate. Why? Because IVAS was awarded under the Army’s Other Transaction authority (OTA) and is not subject to the same FAR rules as the JEDI contract.
Augmented reality goggles and the future of defense acquisition
The Armyâs Integrated Visual Augmentation System has been in the works for years, but the potentially multibillion deal could mark a paradigm shift in how the Defense Department buys and leverages technology.
By Lauren C. Williams
Apr 14, 2021
The Army made national news when it announced a deal to buy more than 120,000 augmented reality headsets from Microsoft for $22 billion in order to enhance soldier training and situational awareness.
The Integrated Visual Augmentation System, which has been in the works for more than three years and has functions like radio communications and high-resolution night and thermal sensors, is undeniably cool. But there’s more to the potentially multibillion deal, which could mark a potential shift in how the Defense Department can and should buy new technology.
Big changes coming to Army Stryker brigades 2 hours ago Army Stryker Brigade Combat teams are expected to add engineers, electronic warfare, more artillery and robot vehicles for the future fight. (Army) While many of the Army’s vehicles are expected to be replaced in the near term, upgraded versions of the existing Stryker, an infantry carrier vehicle, are expected to keep the armored eight-wheelers as the central infantry carriers until 2040 or beyond. To keep the centerpiece of mounted infantry in the fight, Col. Damien Mason, director of the Army Capability Manager Stryker Brigade Combat Team, has a running list of new technologies to insert into the platform.