End-of-life testing for the Army’s MR system scheduled for 2024
In 2024, the Army will officially begin testing its augmented reality gadget, which will be distributed to individual troops. The device is designed to enhance shooting, navigation, and a variety of duties via the use of soldier-built apps.
The military is investing $22 billion on the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), a helmet-mounted device that combines thermal augmented reality with situational awareness and night vision.
While development of the more robust, field-worthy 1.2 edition progressed in late 2022, the Army acquired early variants, referred to as IVAS 1.0 and 1.1. The acquisition of 5,000 sets of IVAS 1.0 in 2022 and a further 5,000 sets of IVAS 1.1 in 2023 was verified by authorities to Army Times.
The 1.0 and 1.1 editions will be sent to training divisions and educational facilities so that troops may experiment while discovering how to make the most of the newly developed technology.
In mid-2023, Microsoft sent out 20 IVAS 1.2 prototypes; the system was based on the HoloLens AR headset.
Midway through August, soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, stationed at Fort Drum, New York, conducted live fire tests to ensure weapon interoperability with the 1.2.
According to authorities from the Programme Executive Office-Soldier, speaking with Army Times, 80 additional gadgets are expected to be delivered in 2024, and 200 more are envisaged for 2025, with deployment likewise set for that year.
In 2019, the first version of IVAS that was built using HoloLens was released.
The gadget evolved from a headstrap goggles solution that required or did not need a helmet to one that relied on a chest-mounted console and heavy cabling as groups worked on it.
Soldiers found the cabling to be a nuisance throughout many field testing.
Difficulties with optical aberrations and humidity control were discovered during early examination, which caused a one-year delay in evaluation. However, these issues have been addressed with hardware as well as software improvements, according to authorities.
Like many night vision gadgets in use today, the 1.2 edition now features a flip-up, skull mount.
One of its standout characteristics is its capacity to establish a wireless connection with a user’s weapon sight. This enables a dual-view capability, where the user can see both the camera that is installed on their firearm and the gadget’s heads-up display.
The weapon-IVAS combination’s Family of Weapons Sights-Individual software demonstrated the ability to see through obscurants, such dirt or haze, utilising thermal imaging during tests at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, which is home to PEO-Soldier. Additionally, when hiding behind cover, soldiers may use the weapon camera to start shooting around obstructions.
Applications for navigation and training let users create three-dimensional maps of landscape, utilise the heads-up display to monitor compass points, and locate allied and hostile positions. The gadget may load the shooting house’s interior map, sometimes known as a sand table, for use in strategic situations.
As a team, users may track one other’s positions as they travel around the field, thereby enabling agile post-shooting assessments.
The IVAS allows soldiers to pilot microdrones that survey the area and capture images of potential targets. These images are sent to the operational cloud pack, which generates a three-dimensional map of the area.
A gadget the size of a briefcase is employed at the compact level to operate the cloud bundle.
The current Nett Warrior Tactical Assault Kit, which is based on a cell phone, may also be linked to the IVAS. People may add apps and exchange data with that device.
Brigadier General Christopher Schneider, commander of the PEO-Soldier, gave the example of machine gunner’s fields of fire being loaded in advance, into the device so that they are ready to go when they reach the combat location.
An app that gives a nine-line summary to facilitate healthcare evacuations or one that allows medics to execute battlefield treatment under the supervision of a physician in another place may be made by developers, he added.
