Microsoft has won the major contract to supply $21.8B worth HoloLens 2 to the US Army. This huge contract has sent Microsoft’s shares soaring after the announcement.
Microsoft will supply HoloLens to the US Army
The company thus strengthens its relationship with the US public administration, after winning the JEDI contract from The Pentagon in front of Amazon. While it is not surprising that Microsoft was the chosen one as already at the end of 2018 the company signed an initial agreement with the military for $480 million. Just over two years later, the US will take a step forward in the use of augmented reality and together with the company will bring HoloLens to production and deployment in army operations.
120,000 devices will be used
Microsoft‘s contract states that it will source more than 120,000 augmented reality glasses, which will be manufactured in the U.S. The latest model of its glasses, the HoloLens 2, is already being used in hospitals and businesses. In the case of the military, the first prototype was based on the first generation, although for months they have been showing a new style of glasses, predictably based on the second generation.
The company explains that it will move to the next phase with Integrated Visual Augmentation System’ (IVAS), a device based on HoloLens and supported with Microsoft Azure cloud services. As the company describes, this will allow soldiers to be “safer and make them more effective” as the program offers “enhanced situational awareness, enabling information sharing and decision making in a variety of scenarios.”
The average cost of HoloLens glasses is around $3,500 and the IVAS system is capable of displaying maps, revealing people thanks to the thermal sensor.
