The controversial partnership goes back as far as 2018, when Microsoft won a $480 million contract to provide AR tech to the US military. Their mutual goal? To “increase lethality by enhancing the ability to detect, decide, and engage before the enemy.” Some of Microsoft’s own employees protested the company’s bid for the contract, noting that it was inappropriate for the tech giant to develop tools that might eventually be used to wage war. But Microsoft went through with it anyway, and aside from this most recent exception, it’s been fumbling the bag ever since.
In March, Business Insider obtained an internal Microsoft memo in which an employee said the HoloLens team was “expecting negative feedback from the customer.” The employee went on to say soldiers’ expectations were low, which might work out in Microsoft’s favor given that the “delivery delta might not be big.” The HoloLens devices, which are referred to officially as Integrated Visual Augmentation Systems (IVAS), were said to adapt poorly to low light and possess degraded thermal imaging performance. Just a month later, a US government watchdog warned that the Pentagon might have wasted its time and money on the deal—the latter of which, at the time, had stacked up to $22 billion.
(Photo: Microsoft)
But things appear to have turned around since. Assistant Secretary for Acquisition Douglas Bush has reportedly cleared a delivery of an undisclosed number of devices, according to Bloomberg. Field testing has reportedly yielded encouraging results. “We did a good test and will learn from it,” Bush said in a statement. “The Army remains confident that the program will succeed.”
This doesn’t mean everything is all butterflies and rainbows, however. Army spokesperson Jamal Beck said in a separate statement that the branch is “adjusting its fielding plan to allow for time to correct deficiencies,” which weren’t elaborated on further. Nothing appears to have been said about Microsoft’s ability (or failure) to correct the aforementioned low light and thermal imaging issues, which are likely foundational to the Army’s potential success with the program. Bloomberg reports that the Pentagon’s director of operational tests and evaluation is working on a final test report slated for next month, at which point these adjustments might be revealed.
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