Microsoft's military supplies appeared: The first batch of military AR goggles has been delivered to the U.S. military by employees to be accused of "war together"

A few days ago, the US Army announced that it had approved the first batch of new combat goggles produced by technology giants Microsoft, and claimed that it had "encouraged results" in field tests. In March last year, the US Army and Microsoft reached a 5,000 set of "integrated visual enhancement systems (IVAS)" watch mirrors, worth about $ 373 million.

According to reports, Microsoft launched the "Military Customized Edition" goggles based on HoloLens, a commercial equipment, with a market price of $ 3,500 per unit. This battle mirror integrates night vision, thermal imaging, and augmented reality technology based on sensors. It will "throw" a flat display of fighter pilots to the goggles of the ground forces to assist soldiers for combat, rehearsal and training.

↑ Microsoft released the mixed reality head -wearing display "HoloLens" in 2015

As early as 2018, the Pentagon of the United States has reached a preliminary agreement with Microsoft Corporation with Microsoft Corporation to develop military goggles with military versions. In March 2021, the two sides further cooperated to the 121,000 sets of IVAS goggles within 10 years, of which the first batch of order was 5,000. The price of each set of IVAS goggles is about $ 182,000, and this 10 -year transaction value will reach US $ 21.9 billion.

↑ The US Army tests the new type of combat goggles produced by Microsoft

↑ The US Army tests the new type of combat goggles produced by Microsoft

It is reported that the goggles reached by the Pentagon and Microsoft have caused a lot of controversy. After the preliminary agreement between the two parties was announced, more than 50 Microsoft employees Nadella and President Smith, CEO of the company in early 2019, asked the company to withdraw from the US military to provide a contract with the US military (AR), saying that they were called them. Refusing to become "the same conspiracy of war and oppression."

"Applying the iVAS system to HoloLens is to help people kill people." These Microsoft employees wrote in the letter saying that "it will be deployed on the battlefield and turned the war into a simulated 'video game' to further kick off the soldiers. The distance between the war and the reality of bleeding. "These employees also emphasized that the contract marks Microsoft for the first time" crossing the border into the field of weapon development ", and employees have not signed" R & D weapons "with Microsoft.

Subsequently, a spokesman for Microsoft responded in the statement: "We have always been grateful to the feedback from employees ... (but), as we said before, we are committed to providing our technology to the US Department of Defense, including the US Army, including the US Army . "Microsoft President Smith has repeatedly expressed its support for the company's transactions with the US Army. It once said:" People who defend our country need and worthy of our support. "

In addition, the US military's performance of Microsoft's combat mirrors has caused delay in delivery. In September last year, the U.S. Army claimed that it was planned to "quickly deploy this ability" before the end of the fiscal year of the 2021 on the 30th of the month. On October 4 last year, the supervisor of the Pentagon began to audit Microsoft's IVAS system, which is said to be "determining whether the army officials produced and deployed IVAS system components that meet the requirements and user needs." Just 10 days later, the US Army stated that the plan to postpone the purchase of IVAS goggles from Microsoft, "to continue to enhance the technology platform."

According to the recent statement issued by the US Army spokesman Jamal Beck, since reaching a transaction last year, the mirror delivery was put on hold due to performance concerns. Until a more stringent test, the assistant minister, Douglas Bush, approved the Army to start accepting acceptance The first batch of goggles. Baker said in the statement that according to the test results obtained so far, the Army is adjusting its deployment plan, "in order to leave time to correct the defects of the equipment and deploy the equipment to the troops focusing on related training activities."

Red Star News reporter Hu Yiling

Editor Deng Yiguang Editor Yang Cheng

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