Microsoft HoloLens: Pentagon orders computer glasses for $ 22 billion

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Training with the military version of the HoloLens: "Creating a lifelike mixed-reality training environment"

Photo: COURTNEY BACON / AFP

The US military is becoming an increasingly important client for Microsoft.

According to a report by the news channel CNBC, the Pentagon has placed an order with the US company for the provision of more than 120,000 HoloLens data glasses and related data services for the US Army.

The order is valued at $ 21.88 billion (EUR 18.64 billion) and will run for ten years.

Microsoft's HoloLens are so-called augmented reality glasses (AR); Microsoft has introduced the term »Mixed Reality« (MR) for them.

Such devices work completely differently than virtual reality glasses (VR), which completely shield the user from the outside world and allow virtual reality to appear on small screens right in front of their eyes.

AR and MR glasses, on the other hand, create a so-called »superimposed reality« by fading virtual objects, holograms, but also graphics and texts into the user's field of vision.

Fight, rehearse, train

Unlike providers such as Oculus and HTC, who primarily develop their VR glasses for computer gamers, Microsoft developed the HoloLens primarily for industrial applications.

The list price is 3849 euros, according to Microsoft, the users include companies such as Airbus, Mercedes-Benz and L'Oréal.

With the computer goggles called Integrated Visual Augmented System (IVAS) and the connection to Microsoft's Azure cloud services, you deliver "a platform that will make soldiers safer and more effective," enthuses Microsoft manager Alex Kipman on the Microsoft blog Deal.

The Pentagon Executive Office Soldier portal program goes even further and praises the “process for rapid development and production being redefined.” The new system enables soldiers “to fight, rehearse and train on a single platform . "

"Superiority against current and future opponents"

The capabilities of the military version of the HoloLens therefore go far beyond what an ordinary HoloLens can.

Accordingly, the IVAS has high-resolution night and thermal imaging cameras as well as other sensors that should help the user with orientation and decision-making, but also with target acquisition.

In this way, the system provides data that are necessary for "superiority against current and future opponents."

"The system also uses augmented reality and machine learning to create a lifelike mixed-reality training environment in which the CCF (Close Combat Force) can practice before deploying against an opponent," the Pentagon continues.

One could interpret this as a kind of particularly realistic war video game.

The deal is the third major order from the US military to Microsoft within a few years.

In 2019, the group prevailed against Amazon and won an order to provide cloud services and artificial intelligence.

The order volume of the so-called Jedi project (Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure) is expected to be around ten billion dollars.

Amazon suspected that the then US President Donald Trump had interfered in the procurement process and has filed a lawsuit.

Microsoft had already received an order from the Pentagon a year earlier for the development and provision of prototypes of the IVAS glasses system, which was worth 480 million dollars.

The cooperation between the group and the military is causing internal unrest at Microsoft.

In 2019, several dozen employees signed a letter to management demanding that the contract to develop the IVAS be withdrawn.

Microsoft boss Satya Nadella then defended the project.

In an interview with "CNN Business" he said: "We made the fundamental decision that we will not withhold technology from the institutions that we have chosen in democracies to protect the freedoms we enjoy."