{"id":29872,"date":"2020-02-11T22:00:34","date_gmt":"2020-02-11T22:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2020\/02\/11\/the-army-wants-to-buy-40000-mixed-reality-goggles\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T03:42:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T03:42:45","slug":"the-army-wants-to-buy-40000-mixed-reality-goggles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/intel-geoint\/sensors\/2020\/02\/11\/the-army-wants-to-buy-40000-mixed-reality-goggles\/","title":{"rendered":"The Army wants to buy 40,000 \u2018mixed reality\u2019 goggles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ARLINGTON, Va. \u2013 The Army wants to buy enough of a new augmented reality, do-it-all goggles to outfit nearly half of all close combat forces, from infantry to scouts and engineers, starting next year<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week, the service released its fiscal year 2021 budget, which will have to go through lengthy scrutiny and likely changes by Congress before becoming official, and is requesting 40,219 Integrated Visual Augmentation Systems, or IVAS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IVAS has been championed by top Army brass, including Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville, as a way to deliver fighter pilot-like situational awareness to the individual soldier in an infantry squad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Late last year, Army officials targeted late 2021 <\/a>for beginning IVAS fielding. No specific unit has been identified as the first intended to receive it but Army brass have said it would go to \u201ctop tier\u201d units before rolling out to other infantry formations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The service is asking for more than $906 million for IVAS efforts next year and just over $1 billion the following year. Funding drops to about $320 million in fiscal year 2023 and to less than half that amount, or $148 million by fiscal year 2025, which is as far as budget documents project on these types of programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those decreases are due in part to the number of devices being procured and fielded are expected to fill out the ranks of the \u201cclose combat 100,000\u201d that the IVAS is intended to serve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That round number has been used largely by the Army and Marine Corps in reference to efforts by both services and the special operations community to acquire funding for new and better gear and training for those ground troops at the leading edge of combat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brig. Gen. David Hodne, director of the Army\u2019s Soldier Lethality Cross Functional Team, told reporters<\/a> last year that the IVAS would first be fielded to top tier units and then disseminated across the close combat force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting with the Microsoft HoloLens 2 virtual reality headset, researchers have been testing ways to link that goggle and an advanced Heads-Up Display to Nett Warrior for information sharing across squads. That same capability would also allow other networked units to share data.<\/p>\n\n\n\t