What tech did the Army want to spend $400 million on? - Government Technology

Virtual world (VR) exertion is gaining traction arsenic a invaluable grooming instrumentality for a assortment of applications. But it’s not rather bully capable to driblet $400 cardinal connected conscionable yet, according to the national government. Congress has reportedly denied a petition from the Army to acquisition 6,900 VR headsets based connected Microsoft’s HoloLens technology. According to The Verge, the biggest crushed was issues with the existent versions of the headsets.

Microsoft and the Army person been moving connected a declaration for the institution to proviso the headsets, which the Army calls Integrated Visual Augmentation Systems (IVAS), since 2018. About 1,000 soldiers person logged astir 100,000 investigating hours with the existent IVAS headsets, but their feedback is little than encouraging. Many person reported “mission-affecting carnal impairments,” specified arsenic headaches and nausea.

So alternatively of $400 cardinal to bargain much of the existent headsets, the Army is getting astir $125 million, positive $40 cardinal already awarded to Microsoft, to enactment toward processing an improved version. Called 1.2 IVAS, these caller versions are inactive successful development, but the Army has issued a connection saying it plans to spot orders for them “after qualification and operational testing.” The Army’s declaration with Microsoft allows it to acquisition up to 120,000 headsets implicit a decade.