Why the Army’s Combat Headset is Unstoppable

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Developed by Microsoft it’s Based around their HoloLens 2 smart glasses headset technology. It’s now part of a roughly $400 million dollar defense contract with an upper limit of $22 billion dollars, so a lot is at stake with this device. What exactly is IVAS? According to the army it’s “a mixed reality heads-up display that integrates next generation situational awareness tools and high resolution simulations to provide soldiers with improved mobility and lethality during the day or at night.” So essentially It aims to replace your night vision goggles, communications, GPS and take over how you target enemy positions and run training simulations with your squad.

Written by: Chris Cappy

Edited by: Michael Michaelides

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How much does it weigh exactly? Todd South of the army times wrote an article stating the IVAS 1.0 version weighed a total of 3.4 pounds with 2.4 of those lbs being the most important part which is placed on the soldiers noggin. For context, I was surprised to learn that the ENVG-B also weighs about 2.5 lbs. But unlike that, this is something you’re wearing all day long. This suggests to me that it's possible the slimmed down 1.2 version of the goggles weigh even less so thats encouraging news.

And in fact, Right off the bat the first thing that jumps out to me about the initial images of the version 1.2 compared to the older variants, is the much improved lower profile smaller glasses. The first version in 2018 looked like cumbersome skii goggles and now they look like lighter weight hater blockers. I mean look at the original version, they look a little goofy. Looks like robocop 2014 when I want to look like robocop 1987. In all seriousness this new version is a big step up in addressing one of the biggest points of criticism that troops had who tested the first version, which was that it was uncomfortable and annoying to wear.

Sources:

DOT&E report on IVAS:

Inspector General Audit of IVAS:

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